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JSE-listed group Sasol expects to conclude power purchase agreements for 600 MW of renewable energy “imminently” as it moves ahead with plans to meet a 2030 target of reducing its greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 30%, while sustaining energy and chemical production volumes.

The renewables electricity will be wheeled to the group’s South African operations through the Eskom grid by 2025 and Sasol expects to add a further 600 MW of renewables by 2030.

The emission-reduction commitment, which was unveiled in 2021, has been made against a 2017 baseline of 63.9-million carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) tons and implies a reduction to 44.7-million CO2e tons by 2030.

The group has also pledged to be a net-zero emissions company by 2050.

Speaking to investors during a climate roundtable, CEO Fleetwood Grobler described the procurement of renewables as a key initial lever in its decarbonisation strategy to 2030, during which the group would also seek to displace coal with gas, reduce coal use through the closure of six coal-fired boilers in Secunda and implement energy efficiency projects.

The group was also investigating several green hydrogen and green hydrogen-derivative opportunities, particularly to displace the 2.4-million tons of emissions-intensive ‘grey hydrogen’ it produces currently, mainly from coal, and which the company uses to produce fuels and chemicals through its Fischer Tropsch (FT) technology.

Grobler stressed, however, that meeting the 2030 GHG-reduction target was not contingent on green hydrogen, which was being viewed as a “sweetener” during the period and was expected to contribute to its further decarbonisation only after 2030.

“Catalytic” green hydrogen projects would, however, be implemented during the current decade, including one to repurpose a 60 MW electrolyser at Sasolburg, in the Free State, to produce 3.5 t of the clean energy carrier daily. The green hydrogen arising would most likely be used to support green mobility projects in South Africa, including the fuelling of green-hydrogen mining haulage trucks.

The group would also pursue, in partnership, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) opportunities prior to 2030, using green hydrogen in its FT process to produce jet fuel that was likely to attract a market premium from aviation companies.

A study was currently under way through the so-called HyShiFT programme to produce SAF in partnership with Linde, Enertrag and Hydregen, initially under Germany’s H2Global platform, into which the project would be bid.

Sasol was also leading a feasibility study to explore the potential for the development of a green-hydrogen derivatives export hub at Boegoebaai, in the Northern Cape, and had entered into a green-steel partnership with ArcelorMittal South Africa, for Saldanha Bay and Vanderbijlpark.

Grobler said that the reduction of electrolyser costs to produce green hydrogen to between $1/kg and $2/kg would be a key trigger for Sasol’s future green-hydrogen strategy and indicated that such pricing was likely to emerge only after 2030.

However, he noted that the incentives available in the US under the recently introduced Inflation Reduction Act would bolster the competitiveness of green hydrogen in that country and Sasol was, therefore, considering prospects for combining its FT technology with power-to-X solutions to produce green fuels and chemicals in that country.

The immediate focus in South Africa, however, would be on replacing coal electricity with renewables and moving to secure the gas it required to displace coal in its production processes at Secunda.

Recent drilling success in Mozambique had resulted in Sasol extending its gas supply plateau to 2028.

Executive VP for energy Priscillah Mabelane said the extension had given the group more time to shore up its gas supply options and also reduced the pressure to conclude a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply agreement, which she described as ‘Plan B’ should it fail to secure more gas from southern Mozambiq...

The board of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has announced that four of the five tenders it cancelled in June have been awarded this week, following an evaluation process by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

The R3.4-billion Mtentu Bridge project, on the N2 Wild Coast road, was awarded to the CCCC Mecsa joint venture (JV); the R1-billion rehabilitation of the R56 Matatiele rehabilitation project, in the Eastern Cape, was awarded to Down Touch Investments; the R1.8-billion N3 Ashburton Interchange, in KwaZulu-Natal, was awarded to the Base Major/CSCEC JV; and the EB Cloete interchange improvements project, in KwaZulu-Natal, valued at R4.3-billion, was also awarded to Base Major/CSCEC JV.

In light of the recent announcement by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana that e-tolls would be scrapped, a decision on the open road tolling tender (TCH Operator) has been put on hold pending clarity on key issues.

“We are . . . deeply grateful to the industry for their patience in resubmitting tenders for these contracts and waiting for the adjudication process to be concluded,” Sanral chairperson Themba Mhambi said.

When the contracts were cancelled, there was a concern by the executive on the impact that it would have on the country’s infrastructure development agenda, he said.

The Sanral board instructed management to readvertise and award the R17.47-billion in tenders the board cancelled earlier in May, citing “material irregularities” within four months.

“We . . . undertook to both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula that we would do everything possible to ensure we mitigate the impact on the construction industry and the economy. And that meant re-advertising, evaluating and awarding the tenders within four months after they were cancelled. We . . . learnt valuable lessons about how to handle tenders with speed to keep the country’s economic development on the boil,” Mhambi said.

Sanral said it would continue to prioritise infrastructure development in driving South Africa’s economic recovery. While this process has delayed the implementation of critical infrastructure upgrades, Sanral said that it was balanced against healthy governance and the need to ensure compliance with all relevant procurement and legal prescripts when tenders are awarded.

South Africa cannot be allowed to breach its climate change mitigation measures and Paris Agreement declarations despite it being an emerging country that is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, South African Presidential Climate Commission mitigation head Steve Nicholls told delegates at last week’s ESG Africa Conference.

Many African countries have, of late, requested lenience in meeting climate change mitigation commitments, requesting also a delay in their abandonment of cheap and easy-to-obtain fossil fuels as a result of their delayed and inhibited industrial and social development.

Many argue that developed nations built their economy, industrial base and power generation network using vast volumes of fossil fuels and that Africa should also be allowed to burn the carbon intensive fuels for a while longer, while it develops.

However, Nicholls said South Africa, in particular, is a carbon-intensive emitter, sharing an emissions contributing position among the highest, globally.

For this reason, Nicholls said South Africa has to reduce its emissions immediately.

“There is no chance for us to increase our emissions.”

He posed the question of whether there should be an interim period during which very poor countries should be allowed to increase their emissions so that they can develop socially and in terms of their industries.

“The answer is probably yes, but in very small areas. It is not in power [generation]. It does not mean that we can go and build massive coal-fired power stations,” said Nicholls.

He added that gas was also not an avenue that should be exploited, despite its frequent marketing as a less carbon-intensive source of energy. “It does not mean we can do more oil and gas exploration,” Nicholls added.

He posited that there “may be some opportunity” for African nations to increase their emissions in certain industrial activities, but that fossil fuel-intensive forms of power generation were not an option and that South Africa could not afford to expand its burning of fossil fuels by any measure.

Globally, measures to limit temperature rise to 1.5 oC above preindustrial era levels, have to be implemented by every country, regardless of their stage of development. “. . . If we are to stay below 1.5 oC, we have to be net zero by 2050. And by we [I mean] everybody – the whole planet. Africa has to be as well. Australia has to be, everybody has to be [compliant in mitigation measures],” Nicholls stated.

In terms of what is required to limit and reduce emissions, he said the pace of change had to be “enormous . . . It is faster than you think, always.”

Nonetheless, Nicholls alluded that many African nations, South Africa included, would not achieve sufficient emissions reductions by 2050 and that significant regional warming was on the horizon.

He said that, realistically speaking, the 1.5 oC target would not be met. He added that it may be possible to limit the increase to 2 oC by 2050; however, analysis had shown that by implementing current policy measures, the increase in temperatures would be closer to 2.7 oC.

Taking this into account, Nicholls said South Africa was due to expect temperature increases of between 4 oC and 6 oC by 2050. This would result in severe social ailments, such as a 25% reduction in agricultural output and about 20-million climate migrants fleeing severe heat in regions that are already “borderline inhospitable”.

Hyundai Automotive South Africa (HASA) CEO Niall Lynch says the Korean importer hopes to secure more new-vehicle stock from its parent company in 2023.

“If we had more cars, we could have sold more [this year]. It has been a good year, but hopefully next year we’ll have more stock.”

Lynch says Hyundai will work to improve its passenger-car market share next year, which has slipped from 11.27% in the first quarter of the year, to 8.61% in the third quarter.

Sales have dropped from 10 529 units in the first quarter, to 8 186 units in the third quarter.

Hyundai, as with all vehicle importers in South Africa, is also battling a deteriorating rand, which has weakened around 25% against the dollar in the last four months, notes Lynch.

Apart from securing more new stock from Hyundai in South Korea, HASA is also positive that its rejuvenated Venue sports-utility vehicle (SUV) should boost its numbers going forward.

HASA sales and operations director Stanley Anderson says the SUV and crossover market in South Africa “keeps on exploding”, in what he describes as the “most contested sector” in the local automotive industry.

The segment reached a passenger-car market share of 40.8% in the first eight months of 2021, expanding to 46.3% in the same period this year, with volumes increasing by more by than 30 000 units.

Hyundai sold more than 17 000 units of the Venue in South Africa before the introduction of the facelifted version.

The Venue range remains the same with the launch of the new model, bar the Glide, which is replaced with an N Line model.

The refreshed model features a new grille, as well as some fresh creature comforts and technology.

Pricing starts at R294 900, with the top-specced N Line available for R449 900.

Anderson adds that HASA will bring an electric Hyundai to South Africa “as soon as we believe it is viable. There are electric models available for us to order”.

South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) could expand at a yearly average of about 2.3% between 2022 and 2050, or more than twice the rate achieved over the past decade, under a scenario where the country transitions towards net-zero carbon emissions, a new World Bank report states.

The 'South Africa Country Climate and Development Report', released on November 1, also estimates that about two to three more jobs will be created by investing in climate mitigation and adaptation than the 300 000 jobs that are likely to be shed in high-emitting sectors, particularly in the coal value-chain.

That said, such a transition would require total incremental financing of R8.5-trillion over the period, equivalent to 4.4% of GDP yearly, and the funding gap would be closed only with the support of external resources and a material reallocation of domestic savings towards the building of climate resiliency.

In addition, the report warns of a labour market mismatch, whereby the new jobs are created gradually in non-coal mining activities and will be spatially diverse, while the job losses will occur mainly in the mid-2030s and primarily in the Mpumalanga province.

“The government will have to address these two challenges – timing and location – by ensuring the availability of workers with the right skills and encouraging them to move across sectors and regions.

“This will require the development of partnerships with the private sector in the short term, and the identification of support to income-generating opportunities, the revamping of the education system (especially technical and vocational education and training), and the removal of persistent rigidities in the labour market in the longer term.”

Nevertheless, the report concludes that the urgent implementation of both mitigation and adaptation investments is “foremost in the country’s self-interest”, as it will bolster the economy’s long-term competitiveness (increasingly threatened by carbon-related trade restrictions) while laying the foundations for much-needed energy security.

The report notes that loadshedding is having “devastating” economic consequences and is costing the economy $200-million every day the rotational power cuts are implemented.

It also concludes, as have several other reports before it, that accelerating investments in renewable energy is in the national best interest.

“[Renewables] will help the country address its current energy crisis most urgently and cost-competitively, while lowering greenhouse-gas emissions and delivering substantial local health, environmental and economic competitiveness co-benefits.”

Resolving the electricity crisis in a way that reduced emissions would also be pro-growth by increasing labour productivity through a better allocation of resources and improving worker health and by supporting a net improvement in employment, which would stimulate aggregate demand.

However, University of the Witwatersrand adjunct professor Michael Sachs cautioned that the report’s call for the immediate implementation of a competitive wholesale electricity market to support the transition faced political and institutional headwinds, which could undermine the just transition.

“The report says South Africa has adopted this ambitious agenda, but it's by no means clear that the leadership of the country is committed to these market-based reforms in the energy supply sector, and in transmission and distribution,” he said in response to the release of the report.

“[Another] problem with the market-based approach is that economics teaches us that markets are an effective way of improving efficiencies, but they are not necessarily an effective way of creating equity.

“Are we going to have an equitable distribution of access to power once we have allowed these market-based solutions with many buyers and many sellers? .[A] just transition, we have to realise, is about more than the coal miners in Mpumalanga and actually concerns many aspects of how South Afric...

Domestic new-vehicle sales in October increased by 11.4%, to 45 966 units, compared with the same month last year.

The new-passenger-car market reached 30 597 units in October – a 10.4% jump on the same month last year.

The car rental industry accounted for 17.4% of car sales, as the leisure industry continued to gear up for the summer holidays.

Sales of new bakkies, vans and minibus taxis expanded by 14.3%, to 12 738 units.

October medium-truck sales grew by 29.9%, reaching 769 units, while heavy-truck and bus sales increased by 3.7%, to 1 862 units.

New-vehicle exports soared by 16.1%, to 29 508 units.

Year-to-date vehicle export numbers are now 14.4% ahead of the corresponding period last year.

Naamsa | The Automotive Business Council notes that exports continued their upward momentum during October, despite the disruptions caused by the Transnet port strike.

“Despite weaker global demand, due to major advanced economies around the world entering a new era of persistent and structurally higher inflation, vehicle exports remain on track to reach a level of well over 300 000 units.”

Naamsa adds that October’s new-vehicle market performance comes despite “tough economic pressures”.

“Growth prospects for the balance of the year remain constrained as higher interest rates and, consequently, higher debt servicing costs, weigh on disposable income.”

Eskom has announced that the final unit at the Komati power station in Mpumalanga was shut at midday October 31, officially signalling the end of the station’s operating life as a coal-fired generator and the site’s transition to a renewables, storage, manufacturing and training hub – one that could serve as a global reference as several countries consider ways to transition away from fossil fuels while supporting the livelihoods of affected workers and communities.

Komati has been identified as the flagship site for Eskom’s so-called ‘Just Energy Transition (JET) Strategy’, which includes various repowering and repurposing initiatives, including the development of 150 MW of solar photovoltaic, 70 MW of wind and 150 MW battery storage at the retired station.

The utility says the initiatives, which are likely to receive concessional funding support from development finance institutions and developed country governments, are intended to ensure that the existing infrastructure, including the associated transmission infrastructure, support the energy transition and the creation of economic opportunities in the region.

Besides the renewable and storage projects, a containerised micro-grid assembly factory has already been established on site and plans are under way for the creation of the Komati Training Facility in partnership with the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to develop the training facility.

“The Komati repowering and repurposing project is one of the largest coal-fired power plant decommissioning, repowering and repurposing projects globally and will serve as a global reference on how to transition fossil-fuel assets,” Eskom said in a statement confirming the plant’s retirement.

The final unit, or Unit 9, was itself commissioned in March 1966 and was the last of nine units to be built at the power station, which began operations in 1961.

Eskom stressed that the shutting down of the unit would not have a significant impact on the national electricity grid or on an intensification of ongoing loadshedding, as Unit 9 was contributing only 121 MW ahead of its closure.

The majority of Komati employees had already been transferred to support and augment skills in other power stations and areas of the business in line with operational requirements.

The remaining employees would take part in the Komati Repowering and Repurposing project and Eskom confirmed that no employees would lose their jobs as a result of the closure.

Komati was previously mothballed owing to the country’s excess generation capacity in the early 1980s, including Unit 9 which was then mothballed in 1989.

The station then featured as part of a return to service programme, which also involved Camden and Grootvlei, with refurbishment commencing on the August 14, 2006. Unit 9 was handed over to the generation division on the December 24, 2008 and re-entered commercial on the January 4, 2009.

“The end of Komati’s coal-fired journey marks the beginning of another exciting journey in the service of South Africa.

“Eskom has developed a comprehensive JET Strategy which places equal importance on the transition to lower carbon technologies, and the ability to do so in a manner that is ‘just’ and sustainable.”

In light of ongoing grid constraints, some wind industry practitioners are warning that only about 2 GW of the 3.2 GW wind allocation in Bid Window Six (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) is likely to be taken up, given that lower-priced solar photovoltaic projects could absorb a portion of the remaining available network in the key wind provinces of the Eastern and Western Cape. There are also warnings that South Africa’s logistics and construction sectors are not in a position to cope with the anticipated acceleration of wind-related project activity, which is increasingly likely to be driven by private-sector projects rather than the REIPPPP. Any further delays on the back of a protracted period of procurement disruption between 2015 and 2021 and difficulties in ensuring that projects procured under BW5 reach financial close will contribute to extending loadshedding, which has already intensified dramatically this year. Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer raised these concerns with South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) CEO Niveshen Govender, whose responses are outlined below.

Engineering News: Do you believe there is a risk that the full 3.2 GW allocated to wind as part of BW6 might not be taken up?

Govender: The wind industry has typically exceeded the allocation in terms of what has been submitted and constraints are usually related to grid capacity. Areas of high levels of wind resource are the most constrained. The allocation for the REIPPPP can only be taken up if there are sufficient bids which meet the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and IPP Office guidelines at a competitive cost. We have seen that there are more bids, with a combined capacity of about 4.2 GW, than the allocation for BW6, which is 3.2 GW. Where there is available capacity, the best suited technologies for the country must be evaluated whilst considering maintaining the integrity of the programme.

Given that price is the key evaluation criteria and PV projects could come in cheaper than wind during BW6, is there a risk that grid capacity in areas of strong wind resources will be diverted to PV, which only has a 1 GW allocation?

The evaluation process allows for both wind and PV projects to be evaluated equally based on price and grid-connection availability, hence the most cost-effective projects will use up the initial grid capacity in a specific region. Once the allocation for one technology is used up (e.g. PV since it has a lower allocation as part of BW6), the remaining allocation for the bid round falls to the other technology whilst ensuring that the specific allocation for that technology is not exceeded. Although PV may allow for lower tariffs in certain instances, considerations need to be made as to the holistic set of factors required of a power generation facility, including the availability factor – with new wind energy projects reaching approximately 50%, that needs to be taken into consideration. It is within the purview of the government and system operator to lay out the requirements for a technology to meet the demand. As SAWEA, we advocate that the government and system operator consider these additional factors given the struggles the State utility is undergoing.

Is there anything that can be done to safeguard grid capacity for wind projects during BW6?

Grid capacity is one of the main constraints to the expansion of wind energy projects and renewable energy projects at large in South Africa. Preferred bidders are chosen by the IPP Office and DMRE through a rigorous closed-door evaluation process hence wind projects must comply with requirements as set out in the BW6 request for proposals (RFP) in order to ensure they are chosen as preferred bidders. Although as an industry we can see the advantages of safeguarding grid capacity for wind-specific projects, we must ensure that the integrity of the REIPPPP is not compromised.

Has the industry eng...

Eskom’s proposal to restructure renewable energy tariffs will impede growth in private sector investment in renewable energy projects and destroy intentions to wheel surplus energy through Eskom’s grid, as doing so will hold little financial gain, Meridian Economics MD Grove Steyn has said.

Speaking at public hearings held by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) on October 27, he said that, despite the need to balance Eskom’s revenue collection efforts with the need for a rapid rollout of renewable energy projects, the issue of restructuring tariffs was “very complex” and that loadshedding was the most pressing issue that needed to be resolved in the immediate term.

“Our main concern is that [Eskom] did not take into account the short to medium term economic reality in the power sector and the fact that we have a massive loadshedding crisis, and that reality did not seem to influence and shape the technical analysis they did for this proposal,” said Steyn.

He explained that South Africa was now heavily dependent on a rapid acceleration of private sector investment in distributed generation to help the country overcome loadshedding as soon as possible.

Loadshedding was made worse by “significant challenges” in terms of Eskom’s energy availability factor, as well as delays and challenges with the Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office’s procurement programmes, particularly the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme and the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, stated Steyn.

“We have a huge gap and we need to scale up the distributed generation sector rapidly,” he said.

“Our concern is that Eskom’s tariff restructuring proposals will have unintended consequences of substantially disincentivising and delaying the rollout of these critical investments in the short to medium term and that this should be avoided at all costs.

“[We dispute Eskom’s] proposal, in particular to transfer generation capacity cost recovery from variable to fixed charges,” Steyn said.

In this regard, he said that a main finding from a power system modelling study recently done by Meridian Economics – which was based on hourly data from Eskom from the entire power system in 2021 – showed that, with an increase in available renewables in the system, 96.5% of all loadshedding in 2021 would have been eliminated. “This is a really important finding.”

Another finding, Steyn highlighted, was that, even if Eskom paid for these new renewables, based on conservative cost assumptions, the utility would still have saved R2.5-billion in 2021, compared with its total generation costs. “The saving will be much larger for Eskom if it does not have to pay for the renewables.”

Therefore, he said that despite investors pouring money into embedded generation projects and bearing all the costs and risks associated thereto, they provide significant benefits to the power system currently “for free”.

This, Steyn said, was a prime example of a positive externality, and a “really important” part of the economics South Africa’s electricity grid currently faced, and which needed to be taken into account when considering tariff restructuring.

The savings stemming from using renewables are as a result of having to use, to a lesser extent, peaking power plants, which Eskom has recently been operating throughout numerous days to reduce loadshedding stages, he said.

Peaking power plants are designed and intended to be used only during peak power demand times, such as evenings, and are not intended to be relied upon for baseload generation throughout the day.

“Renewables have the opportunity to reduce how much we have to use those very expensive resources [the peaking power plants].

“On the pumped storage side, they are huge efficiency losses – about a third of the energy that we get from the pumped storage will be saved if we had additional renewables on the system,” said Steyn.

A similar point applies to Eskom’s op...

Eskom’s latest Transmission Development Plan (TDP2022) includes assumptions that deviate materially from those contained in the outdated Integrated Resource Plan of 2019 (IRP2019) and points to the need for a significant acceleration in grid-related investments to facilitate the integration of 53 GW of new generation capacity, mostly renewables, over the next ten years.

Covering the period from 2023 to 2032, the latest edition of the plan, which is published yearly, points to the need for the construction of 14 218 km of new high-voltage transmission lines over the period.

It also outlines the need for the deployment of 170 transformers, with a capacity of 105 865 MVA, along with 40 capacitors and 52 reactors to support stable and reliable grid operations and the integration of new generation capacity and load centres.

However, it deviates from earlier editions by proposing a front-loading, in the coming five years, of investments in new transformers to unlock 16.6 GW of grid capacity ahead of the introduction of major new power corridors, owing to delays in securing the necessary servitudes for such lines.

Eskom estimates that 12.1 GW of additional capacity can be unlocked in the north-eastern parts of South Africa through 23 transformation projects across multiple sites in the Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State, North West and Limpopo provinces.

A further 4.5 GW is earmarked to arise from 13 projects in the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape provinces, where South Africa’s wind and solar resources are at their most potent but where the grid has either reached its limits or is close to full capacity.

Transmission MD Segomoco Scheppers reports that, overall, the TDP2022 points to the need for investments with a combined value of R72.2-billion over the coming five years to add 60 transformers, with a capacity of 26 970 MVA, and 2 890 km of new high-voltage lines. The 11 325 km of line outlined in the ten-year plan are backloaded to between 2028 and 2032.

Scheppers told stakeholders that the revised assumptions were prompted by changes in the environment since the publication of the IRP2019, which was also being reviewed by government, as well as the fact that the TDP2022 extended beyond the IRP2019’s 2030 horizon.

The latest TDP has also been aligned with Eskom’s corporate plan to 2035, which has been shared with government and which incorporates an accelerated decommissioning of the existing, poorly maintained and unreliable coal fleet relative to the schedule outlined in the IRP2019.

The plan assumes that the energy gap will be closed largely using electricity derived from variable wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generators, supported by some diesel and gas plants and a large deployment of battery energy storage.

Senior manager for strategic planning Ronald Marais indicates that, relative to the IRP2019, the TDP2022 assumes an accelerated decommissioning of an additional 3.4 GW of coal by 2030, largely on the back of an accelerated shutdown of Tutuka. However, Eskom is also assuming that the private coal plants included in the IRP2019 will not feature in the 2030 mix.

By 2032, the TDP2022 assumes that there will be 27.9 GW of coal, down from 39.4 GW currently, and that South Africa will have a 97.4 GW installed based, comprising coal (27.9 GW), wind (26.3 GW), solar PV (18.3 GW), open cycle gas turbines (8.4 GW), batteries (6.55 GW), imported hydro (4 GW), pumped storage (2.5 GW) and nuclear (1.86 GW) with landfill gas, small hydro, biomass and concentrated solar power making up the balance.

“Generation has become the primary driver for new transmission infrastructure, and we are aiming to capacitate the grid for new generation connections, of which wind and solar will be the two dominant technologies,” Marais says.

However, the transmission unit, which is in the process of being unbundled to become the National Transmission Company South Africa, is also prioritising the acquisition of ancillary services to ensure a stable s...