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Engineering News editor Terence Creamer discusses the appointment of Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as Minister of Electricity in the Presidency; immediate steps taken by the Minister to diffuse possible tensions with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe; what South Africans can expect from Ramokgopa in the weeks and months ahead; and the release of a 513 MW battery energy storage system tender by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has confirmed that the position of Public Enterprises Minister and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) will “cease to exist” once a new holding company for strategic State-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been created.

Appearing in Parliament to reply to questions posed by members of the National Assembly on Thursday, Ramaphosa said that government intended adopting the recommendation of the Presidential SOE Council that a State-owned holding company be established to house strategic SOEs and to exercise coordinated shareholder oversight.

“This will delineate the functions of policymaking and regulation from the shareholding and operations of those SOEs.

“Policymaking and regulation will reside in the relevant departments,” he said in response to a question posed by the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Mkhuleko Hlengwa.

The seven SOEs that currently fall under DPE, including Eskom, Transnet and Denel, would fall under the holding company and a process was under way to assess which other entities should do likewise. South Africa currently has more that 100 SOEs across various spheres of government.

“As I announced in the State of the Nation Address, government is undertaking a far-reaching reconfiguration of our State-owned enterprises landscape.

“This process of reconfiguration takes the overall approach that SOEs that operate in specific sectors of the economy should be placed under the relevant government departments.

“This is currently the case for most SOEs. The only exceptions are the seven State-owned companies that are in the portfolio of the Department of Public Enterprises.”

He said the reconfiguration process was being supported by the work of the Presidential SOE Council, which had made proposals to strengthen the framework governing SOEs and to determine an appropriate shareholder ownership model.

“A holding company will instil effective governance and enhance the efficiency of SOEs to achieve the government’s developmental objectives, ensure increased transparency and accountability and promote the commercial sustainability of SOEs.”

The State-owned holding company would also, the President said, enable streamlined governance processes, transparent financial systems, economies of scale in procurement, shared transactional services and adequate funding to SOEs to fulfil their respective mandates.

“The Presidential SOE Council is in the midst of an in-depth exercise to establish the strategic and developmental role of each SOE, their financial position and operational capabilities.

“As part of this work, the council will make recommendations on which SOEs could be placed in the proposed holding company.”

In parallel, the Presidency and the National Treasury were working together on a plan to rationalise the number of government departments for the “next administration”.

While there was no guarantee that the governing African National Congress would secure a majority in the 2024 election, Ramaphosa expressed confidence that it would indeed be in a position to implement the merger of ministries and departments that would be recommended once the review was completed.

Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen questioned the President’s commitment to rationalising of his “bloated” Cabinet, however, and asked why a 2019 report by the Public Service Administration, which recommended a reduction in the number of departments, “has been gathering dust on your desk”.

Ramaphosa said the report had informed the 2019 decision to reduce the number of ministries from 34 to 28 and that further work was under way on the reconfiguration options.

He also defended his recent decision to increase the number of Cabinet Ministers to 30, saying both the new ministries in the Presidency were “transitory”, with the Electricity Minister focusing on an “existential” threat to society and the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Minister focusing on immediate issue that required implementation.

“It is a timebound increase...

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) tells Engineering News that Minister Barbara Creecy has received a letter from Eskom requesting her to issue directions in terms of the disaster management regulations to exclude the construction of the temporary stacks at Kusile from environmental requirements.

The state of disaster regulations issued on February 28, include Regulation 5(1)(i) which empowers Creecy to issue directions “excluding upgrades, refurbishments, adjustments and repairs of existing energy infrastructure and existing generation, transmission and distribution facilities” from environmental legislation.

However, both DFFE and Eskom have also confirmed that an alternative proposal was also made by the utility on March 2, whereby exemption from certain requirements of the standard environmental authorisation processes are provided in terms of Section 59 of the National Environmental Management Air Quality Act.

Spokesperson Albi Modise reports that the utility’s request is currently under consideration but indicates that he is unable to immediately outline the process the DFFE will undertake or to provide firm timeframes.

“Minister Creecy met with the legal team [on March 6] and they have committed to giving her advice on the approach to this matter by the end of this week,” Modise says.

Currently only one of Kusile’s four operating units is in service, after the Unit 1 flue duct collapsed on October 23 due to a build-up of slurry. The collapse also compromised the units 2 and 3 flue ducts, which share a chimney with the Unit 1 flue.

The three units, which are able to produce 2 160 MW of electricity, have been inoperable ever since, adding about two stages of loadshedding every time Eskom implements rotational cuts.

A full repair of the damaged west stack, in which the three damaged flues are housed, is expected only in December 2024.

Eskom is, thus, proposing a temporary solution, which it believes will ensure that Kusile is able to be returned to service 13 months earlier, albeit with stacks that by-pass the flue-gas desulphurisation system.

Eskom tells Engineering News that, prior to the March 2 letter to the Minister, it submitted an original application to the DFFE director-general requesting authorisations, exemptions and guidance in respect of the matter on January 30 and supplementary information was also submitted on February 9.

“Eskom has on 3 March 2023 (after it had submitted its letter to the Minister) received revised guidance from the director-general in respect of the way forward in this matter,” Eskom tells Engineering News, adding that it has embarked on the process outlined by the DFFE.

Given the national economic, social and environmental impacts, Eskom is requesting the DFFE to consider an exemption that “balances the potential air quality impacts of the temporary stack project in the area for a limited time against the broader impacts of reduced loadshedding on the people of South Africa under the present state of disaster”.

Eskom has also stressed the urgency of receiving an exemption, warning that without clarity on the legal acceptability of the temporary solution, the placement of critical orders could be delayed.

Should the Minister decide not to grant the requested exemptions, Eskom reports that the process proposed would take until August 2023 to complete.

That said, Concor has already been appointed as the main contractor for the temporary stacks. Installation was subject to approval by the DFFE, however, and no construction could take place prior to such approval.

Eskom insists, too, that the exemptions would be temporary, estimating that the temporary stacks would be employed for about 13 months while the west stack was permanently repaired.

The current plan indicates that the first unit will be available eight months after the environmental exemptions are secured, with the second and third units following in one-month intervals thereafter.

Eskom said the fin...

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has confirmed that five substation sites have been specified by Eskom for the public procurement of battery energy storage systems (BESS) with a combined capacity of 513 MW and a minimum of four hours of storage, or at least 2 052 MWh.

A bid submission date of 17:00 on July 5 has been set and preferred bidders will be announced about two months thereafter. The projects are expected to be in operation 24 months after reaching commercial close.

The request for proposals (RFP) was launched on March 7, but the documentation is available for download only once a prospective bidder provides confirmation that the R25 000 documentation fee has been paid.

The IPP Office tells Engineering News that the payment of a documentation fee has been standard practice for all of South Africa’s independent power producer programmes ever since the launch of the first bid window of the renewable procurement programme in 2011.

There have subsequently been six other renewables bidding rounds, as well as a risk mitigation bid window, through which 11 904 MW of mostly wind and solar capacity has been procured from 134 projects. Not all of the projects have reached financial close, however, and a coal procurement programme was abandoned.

The IPP Office tells Engineering News that the total capacity being procured is 513 MW and a minimum installed energy rating of 2 052 MWh has been stipulated, but the actual installed energy rating will be a bidder risk and part of a bidder’s business case.

The programme’s technical parameters have been provided by Eskom Transmission’s system operator, together with transmission grid planning and distribution network planning, which identified the following substation sites:

Aggeneis 77 MW, at a minimum installed energy rating of 308 MWh;

Ferrum 103 MW, at a minimum installed energy rating of 412 MWh;

Garona 153 MW, at a minimum installed energy rating of 612 MWh;

Mookodi 77 MW, at a minimum installed energy rating of 308 MWh; and

Nieuwehoop 103 MW, at a minimum installed energy rating of 412 MWh.

The RFP does not stipulate the type of battery technology, but the IPP Office stresses that the solution must be capable of performing in accordance with the RFP requirements.

Engineering News was unable to immediately secure information on the local content thresholds that would be applied.

In the advert confirming the launch of the RFP, the DMRE indicated that prospective bidders would also need to complete online registration for each project that a bidder is intending to submit.

A virtual bidders conference would also be hosted prior to the bid submission deadline.

The public procurement of utility-scale BESS follows on from an inaugural Eskom BESS programme, through which an initial 199 MW/833 MWh of battery capacity will be installed across eight Eskom substation sites in four provinces at a cost of R4-billion.

Under a second phase of the Eskom roll-out, a further 343 MW/1 440 MWh of BESS is expected to be installed by December 2024.

Greenpeace Africa on Tuesday disrupted Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe’s opening speech at the Africa Energy Indaba in Cape Town by staging a silent protest in front of the podium.

Five protestors held up yellow placards that declared Coal = Corruption, Coal = Loadshedding and Gwede Stop Blocking Renewables.

The Indaba’s organisers wanted to remove the protestors, but Mantashe insisted that they stayed, noting that doing so would only provide them with the attention they wanted.

Greenpeace Africa told reporters afterwards that the protest was driven by the continued resistance by Mantashe to fast-tracking the addition of new renewable energy to the grid in South Africa, as well as the unprecedented levels of daily loadshedding seen in the country since October last year.

“Coal is a dangerous dead-end pushing South Africa to the brink of destruction, yet almost all of South Africa’s electricity comes from an ancient fleet of coal-fired power stations which are literally falling apart, breaking down more quickly than they can be fixed,” said Greenpeace Africa climate and energy campaigner Thandile Chinyavanhu.

She referred to Mantashe as a “coal fundamentalist”.

“Fast-tracking a shift to renewable energy is clearly the solution.but Minister Mantashe is too biased to see the real solutions, and his fossil fuel obsession is literally bringing South Africa to its knees and cannot remain unchallenged. Enough is enough.”

Mantashe noted in his address that cutting coal as an energy source was not Africa’s decision, but that of developed economies.

“We must resist with everything we have. We must develop our economy to the best of our ability.”

Mantashe said the main cause of the current loadshedding crisis was not a shortage of renewable energy sources, but the suboptimal performance of Eskom’s power stations.

He said the solution to loadshedding in South Africa was fourfold: improving the reliability factor of the current fleet of power stations; accelerating the acquisition of emergency energy; importing energy from neighbouring countries; and focusing on building skills within the power sector.

“That is what we must focus on, not walking away from coal. Coal is going to be with us for a very long time.”

Mantashe said South Africa was indeed focused on lowering its emissions, but that this did not necessarily mean stepping away from the coal it had been endowed with as an energy source.

He emphasised that it was necessary to avoid a polarised debate on energy, noting that the various energy technologies had to “coexist and complement one another”.

He also noted that corruption was everywhere, including in the renewable sector, “I can tell you that”.

Newly-appointed Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, reports that he will conduct an assessment over the coming seven to 14 days to help determine what powers he will request President Cyril Ramaphosa to transfer to him to tackle a supply deficit of about 10 000 MW.

Ramokgopa’s deficit estimate, which he communicated during an interview on SAfm, is larger than the 4 000 MW to 6 000 MW shortfall previously communicated by Eskom and implies that the energy availability factor of the coal fleet is unlikely to recover as strongly as has been suggested by other government leaders.

When announcing Ramokgopa’s appointment, the President said he would transfer certain powers and functions contained in relevant legislation to the new Minister in the Presidency in line with Section 97 of the Constitution.

“The President did announce to the country that there will be powers that will be given to the Minister,” Ramokgopa acknowledged during the radio interview.

“But I think it is important that in the next seven to 14 days, and once we have engaged with the major players in this space, both the generation side and also the demand side . to come back and say what are those powers that we require to enable us to discharge the responsibility,” he said.

The powers given to the new Minister will be closely watched, as there is concern about overlapping responsibilities and the potential for conflicts, particularly with Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

Mantashe has already described the role of the Minister of Electricity as that of a “project manager”, which appeared to be reinforced by Ramokgopa, who emphasised that he would be formulating an “implementation strategy” for the Energy Action Plan announced by Ramaphosa on July 25.

“I'm not introducing any new plan . What I'm doing is to formulate the implementation strategy,” he said, adding that he did not see the electricity crisis as a policy problem, but rather as “technical implementation problem”.

“I'll be transfixed on resolving the technical issues, and almost free myself from the political space.”

Once sworn in he intended having detailed, plant level engagements with Eskom to understand what was required to improve performance.

He would then seek specific commitments from power station managers should he intervene, using his new powers, to clear blockages, including those related to procurement rules.

Likewise, he would meet with independent power producers that were still struggling to progress their projects to financial close, as well as with large companies facing constraints in taking full advantage of the recent lifting of the generation cap on so-called embedded generation projects that can proceed without a licence.

On the demand side, meanwhile, the new Minister aimed to work with financial institutions to find funding solutions to stimulate investments by small businesses and households into solar panels, inverters and batteries.

Ramogkopa would also have discussions about the prospect of warehousing these components so as to ensure that their availability was not a constraint to deployment.

On corruption, Ramokgopa indicated he intended taking an approach that was solution oriented, rather than diagnostic.

“We're beyond describing the problem, we're at the stage of implementing.

“The impatience and anger by our people is justified,” he said, adding that his “sole focus is to resolve the loadshedding problem” by adding 10 000 MW to the grid.

As anticipated, Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa has been appointed as South Africa’s Minister of Electricity, a position which President Cyril Ramaphosa described as transitory and which has been created specifically to coordinate efforts to tackle the "severity and frequency of loadshedding as a matter of urgency".

“To effectively oversee the electricity crisis response, the appointed Minister will have political responsibility, authority and control over all critical aspects of the Energy Action Plan.

“This will help to deal with the challenge of fragmentation of responsibility across various departments and Ministers which, while appropriate under normal circumstances, is not conducive to a crisis response,” Ramaphosa announced in a much-anticipated and delayed address from the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday night.

“This Minister will remain in office for as long as it is necessary to resolve the electricity crisis.”

Ramokgopa, who was previously the Mayor of Tshwane and more recently the head of the investment and infrastructure office in the Presidency, will also liaise with other relevant Ministers “to ensure coherence in the issuing of directions during the National State of Disaster”.

The State of Disaster was declared during Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address on February 9, but the regulations giving effect to the declaration were only published on February 28, with the directions to give effect to those regulations yet to be issued by the various responsible Ministers.

The State of Disaster is being challenged legally and is strongly opposed by several opposition parties, as is the decision to add yet another Minister to what has been described as a bloated Cabinet – one that already has an energy minister responsible for policy and a public enterprises minister with shareholder responsibility for Eskom.

Neither Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe nor Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan were removed.

However, Ramaphosa decided to not only name a Minister for Electricity, but also named a fourth Minister in the Presidency, Maropene Ramokgopa, with responsibility for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation “to focus greater attention on the performance of government”.

Former Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, has swapped roles with Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, and is now Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, while Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has been shifted to become Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.

The President said the Minister of Electricity would be expected to “facilitate the coordination of the numerous departments and entities involved in the crisis response, work with the Eskom leadership to turn around the performance of existing power stations, and accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity”.

“To enable the Minister to do this work, I will, in terms of section 97 of the Constitution, transfer to them certain powers and functions contained in relevant legislation,” he said, without providing specifics.

Also as widely expected, Ramaphosa named African National Congress deputy President Paul Mashatile as the country’s new Deputy President.

Mashatile replaces David Mabuza, who stepped down on March 1.

Business Unity South Africa CEO Cas Coovadia said that, while the organisation had misgivings over the appointment of a Minister of Electricity in a context where there were already two Ministers with responsibility in the area, it would seek to urgently engage with Ramokgopa on the Energy Action Plan and on ways to tackle loadshedding.

Speaking on eNCA, Coovadia said Ramokgopa would also need to clarify his role relative to those of Mantashe and Gordhan, with Mantashe having already indicated that he sees the Minister of Electricity playing the role of "project manager" in addressing the electricity crisis.

"What we need now, is for the Cabinet to be aligned behind the President's vision.

"We have had a Cab...

The mobility evolution continues at breakneck speed as Mercedes-Benz customers in Germany are now able to authenticate payments via an in-car fingerprint sensor.

With a new digital payment service called Mercedes Pay+, Mercedes-Benz introduces what it calls ‘native in-car payments’.

With native in-car payments, the vehicle now enables biometric two-factor authentication in conjunction with a fingerprint sensor.

This means it is no longer necessary to type in a pin on the vehicle’s infotainment system, or to use an additional mobile device such as a smartphone to verify a payment in the car.

Instead, the car itself turns into a payment device.

The first Mercedes-Benz models available with fingerprint sensors in Germany are the EQS and EQE series, the S-Class and C-Class, and the new GLC.

This means customers can activate and subscribe to digital services from their cars’ infotainment systems and authorise payment transactions with their fingerprints.

Examples of these digital services are connectivity apps that control the comfort functions of the car, such as pre-air-conditioning of the vehicle on a hot day via a mobile device, or upgrades to the vehicle’s software, such as advanced navigation services that provide information on the weather or available parking spaces at a customer’s destination.

Mercedes-Benz plans to launch Mercedes Pay+ in other European markets this year. There is no news yet on when this technology will reach South Africa.

The goal is to eventually also expand native in-car payments to other car-related services, such as refuelling.

Mercedes-Benz drivers in Germany and other markets can already pay for fuelling directly from the car via the Mercedes me app, or via the infotainment system using a pin.

The introduction of native in-car payments and payment authorisation by fingerprint inside the car will, however, make this process more seamless and convenient, believes Mercedes-Benz.

A study by Juniper Research shows that the global transaction volume of in-vehicle payments is expected to reach more than 4.7-billion by 2026.

Paying for fuel will be the most common use for in-vehicle payments over the next five years, accounting for around 48% of total in-vehicle payment transactions by volume.

This growth is regarded as the next step in a natural progress of payment methods regarding fuel purchases, which evolved from cash to card, then to smartphone payments, and now to in-car payments.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has purchased two battery electric buses to ferry students between its various campuses.

The decision to roll out the buses follows a test period last year during which the university used a similar demonstration vehicle as a campus residence shuttle, says UJ special projects adviser Professor Andre Nel.

“Our routes were tested using the demonstration bus, and we are certain the busses have sufficient torque and power for our routes.”

The buses typically make low-speed, start-stop trips, adds Nel, which is ideal for an electric vehicle.

UJ has an existing fleet of 15 buses, with the two new electric buses displacing two diesel buses.

The vehicles are charged using solar energy, which adds to their green credentials.

The supplier of the electric buses is South Africa’s Mi Power, trading as Ramabulana Holdings.

Only the battery packs are imported, with these packs then installed locally.

Each bus has a capacity of 76 passengers, with 57 people seated and 19 people standing.

The buses are fitted with closed circuit television cameras and USB charging ports.

“The commercial advantage of having electric buses far outstrips running diesel-operated buses,” explains Nel.

“The return on investment for the university is immeasurable; it cannot be measured in monetary terms.”

The project to acquire the electric buses started more than 18 months ago, as part of UJ’s drive to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We have always had a strong focus on sustainability,” explains Nel.

After rolling out a large number of solar panels, with 15% of UJ’s energy currently flowing from the sun, the question was what could be done next to further the university’s green ambitions.

The answer was green transport, as transport makes up about 4.5% of UJ’s carbon footprint, says Nel.

UJ says it will have to experience loadshedding for more than five hours a night to impact the overnight charging of the electric buses negatively.

It takes 5.5 hours to charge the busses fully.

The range is 350 km, which the university says is more than the 200 km route the buses cover every day.

There are currently two charge points, one on campus and one at the bus depot.

The vehicles are expected to have a 15-year lifespan, says UJ.

The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) has been designated as the “single department” referred to in the recently published State of Disaster (SoD) regulations to coordinate the “streamlining and expediting of applications and decision-making procedures for regulatory processes related to energy generation projects”.

The appointment is catered for under Regulation 5(1)(e) and the Presidency’s Rudi Dicks reports that the clause is in line with the National Energy Crisis Committee’s initiative to establish a one-stop shop within government specifically to expedite regulatory approvals for electricity projects.

Speaking at a briefing hosted to elaborate on the SoD regulations – eventually published on February 27, more than two weeks after the SoD was officially declared – Dicks said the DTIC had been selected because there was already an existing one-stop shop at the department for the registration of businesses.

“We have piggy-backed on that structure so the reporting ministry will be the Trade, Industry and Competition Ministry.”

The one-stop shop would be formally launched once the necessary intra-governmental processes had been finalised and Dicks argued that it would allow for “energy applications to be processed through one entry point” so that projects could enter construction as soon as possible.

Opponents to the SoD and the regulations are unlikely to be appeased by the DTIC’s appointment, given some of the heavy-handed directions that emerged from the department during the Covid SoD. There is likely to be some relief, however, that neither the cooperative governance nor energy departments were selected to perform the function.

Government confirmed that it had already been notified of two legal objections to the SoD.

NO BLANKET ENVIRO EXEMPTION

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy said her department was already participating in one-stop-shop processes for the streamlining of approvals, but stressed that no “blanket exemption” from environmental legislation was envisaged during the SoD.

Any environmental exemptions granted under yet-to-be-published directions would be approved on a “case-by-case basis”.

She also stressed that limiting any exemptions to the period of the SoD represented a built-in safeguard. The SoD has been implemented for three months but is likely to be extended, as was the case during Covid.

“We are looking at developing directions that would enable expedited procedural requirements for environmental authorisation,” Creecy reported, indicating that the accelerated approval processes hitherto applied only to Strategic Integrated Projects (SIP) could be extended to all electricity projects.

Environmental approvals for SIP projects are provided within 57 days, rather than 107 days that theoretically apply to all other projects.

The public participation period for electricity projects could also be shortened from 30 to 14 days and Creecy reported that some projects might be allowed to proceed on the basis of a basic assessment process rather than a full scoping environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The unit that oversees EIAs would also shorten reporting timelines and was likely to give priority attention to electricity-related projects during the SoD.

“The regulations in themselves do not provide exemption from environmental law and it’s not our intention to start producing blanket exemption from those provisions.

“What we recognise is that there may be certain instances where this is required and on a case-by-case basis we would be advised by our legal practitioners how best to deal with that situation to shorten the prescribed timeframes for decision-making.”

Creecy also stressed that she had not yet received any application for exemption from environmental legislation and regulation, including any application from Eskom to exempt the Kusile power station to temporarily by-pass its flue-gas desulphurisation system so as to enable three inoperable units ...