Coal to be part of the base load energy mix for some time to come yet

IT WILL be up to the coal industry to ensure that coal remains the major feedstock for South Africa’s energy requirements in the future, Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Dr Nobuhle Nkabane said yesterday.

She was making the opening address at the 18th South African Coal Conference in Cape Town.

The global energy crisis that has arisen from the Ukraine crisis has resulted in a rapid increase in demand for coal in Europe again, for power generation purposes, and record coal prices, while investment in coal mining prior to this has been steadily declining as the world moved on to renewable energy sources, due to the climate change crisis.

Nkabane said the problem that South African miners faced in taking advantage of the high price and rising demand for coal was the capacity to export, most notably due to the problems with Transnet’s rail service, and the higher cost, road damage and fatal accidents being caused by being forced to transport coal by road to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

She said recent data showed mining production had declined year-on-year for a 10th consecutive month, due mainly to the impact of load shedding.

She said she expected that President Cyril Ramaphosa would soon announce measures to address load shedding.

Nkabane said in response to a question from a delegate that the government did not intend to privatise Eskom, because “society in general feels against the privatisation of Eskom”, but the private sector would be able to invest and be a partner in the energy sector.

Some 75% of coal mined in South Africa is lower grade coal that is consumed domestically mainly by Eskom, while 25% of the coal mined is exported through Richards Bay.

She said while South Africa was committed to the Paris Agreement on climate change and the goals of decarbonisation, a just transition meant one needed to take into account that Africa accounts for only 3% of global carbon emissions.

South Africa is a developing state and its transition into a cleaner economy needed to be people-centred.

“All sources of energy are part of the energy mix. We need to embrace all the technologies that we have and the country is still dependent on coal for most of its energy,” she said.

The passing of control of Eskom from the Department of Public Enterprises to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy was “long overdue”, and the department was “fully capacitated” to be able to oversee Eskom, she said.

Mineral Resources and Energy Department deputy director-general Tseliso Maqubela said mining companies were alive to the need to decarbonise their operations, with, for instance, Goldfields’ 50 megawatt solar power plan expected to generate some 25% of the group’s energy requirements, while Exxaro planned to generate up to 80MW of solar power.

He said the move by mining companies to generate their own electricity would ultimately reduce the mining sector load on Eskom.

Maqubela said the government was working on a masterplan to develop the opportunities and possible industrial manufacturing opportunities that would arise from the just transition, but there could be no sustainable industry plan without power.

He said the government hoped to have the unreliable electricity supply remedied in a year.

In his younger years, he said, the concept of the power stations was that they were self-contained units, and consideration needed to be given again to allow power stations to act on their own with regard to spare parts and maintenance, thereby reducing red tape.