OVERVIEW
Energy The sugar industry is ready to sell excess power.
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outh Africa’s shortage of reliable electricity supply came into sharp focus in 2019. The country’s sugar industry, which is particularly strong in KwaZulu-Natal, says it generates far more power than it needs but national government is hesitating in allowing companies to sell to the grid. Encouraging signs were given that government was moving in this direction in the President’s State of the Nation Address and in remarks made by the Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in February 2020, but no licences or concrete proposals were immediately forthcoming. The managing director of Illovo Sugar SA, Mamongae Mahlare, told the Sunday Times in March that the sugar industry is in real need of some other source of income to offset tough times. Selling energy to the grid (and investigating biofuel and bio-energy) are “key” to the sector’s future, she told the newspaper. At the company’s Eswatini mill, Ubombo, it has a commercial supply agreement with the Eswatini Electricity Company. Sugar plant. Image: Illovo Sugar The province’s other sugar giant, Tongaat Hulett, produces between 12MW and 14MW of power at its mills and believes that the national sugar industry could generate between 700MW and 900MW. A 17MW biomass project represents the province’s only approved project in terms of the national Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). An open cycle gas turbine plant at Shakaskraal in the iLembe District Municipality can be converted to gas-fired technology, a method which energy planners are encouraging. The 670MW plant came on stream in 2017. Its project company, Avon Peaking Power,
Online Resources National Department of Energy: www.energy.gov.za National Energy Regulator: www.nersa.org.za South African National Energy Development Institute: www.sanedi.org.za
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Sector Insight Richards Bay hopes to attract LNG investors. is jointly owned by a community trust, Mitsui (Japan), Legend Power Solutions (South Africa) and ENGIE of France. As part of the provincial government ’s strategy to boost regional development, the iLembe District has been named as an Industrial Economic Hub (IEH) for the renewable energy sector. Khanyisa Projects has set up 26 biodigesters which produce gas for cooking at Ndwedwe in the iLembe District. The project forms part of the Working for Energy programme of the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) which promotes the use of sustainable clean energy in rural areas. The Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone (RBIDZ) has been named as the site for 2 000MW liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in terms of national government’s gas-to-power plan. RBIDZ is also the site of a new biomass plant. Biomass technology is at the centre of the conversion scheme of South African Breweries at its Prospecton plant south of Durban. Methane-gas emissions from a nearby effluent plant are piped to the plant where they are converted to electricity. ■
