State-owned electricity utility Eskom has outlined a R178-billion grid investment plan for the coming ten years, which is premised on a dramatic acceleration of expansionary capital expenditure.

The Transmission Development Plan (TDP) for the period 2022 to 2031 is largely geared towards expanding the network to enable the integration of 30 GW of new, mostly renewable, generation capacity.

The capacity will arise largely in the form of solar photovoltaic and onshore wind generators that will be built in areas with limited existing grid infrastructure.

To be implemented, however, the plan will require a step change in the pace at which new transmission lines are built relative to the previous five years, as well as a massive acceleration in the deployment of new transformer capacity.

Presenting the TDP to stakeholders on October 26, group executive for transmission Segomoco Scheppers said that the bulk of the expenditure, or R144-billion, would be spent on network expansion projects.

The plan envisages the roll-out of 8 406 km of new lines over the ten-year period, as well as the introduction of 119 large transformers, to introduce 58 970 MVA of transformer capacity.

Eskom would have to build 2 598 km of new lines and deploy 35 new transformer units between 2022 and 2026, which would represent a 73% increase in line construction relative to what was built in the five years from 2017 to 2021 and a 94% increase in transformer deployments period-on-period.

In the five years to 2021, Eskom managed to introduce new lines at a yearly pace of only 300 km, a pace that would have to accelerate to at least 500 km a year in the coming five-year period to meet the TDP schedule.

It would have to accelerate even faster in the subsequent five years to 2031, during which the TDP envisages 5 800 km of new lines and 84 large new transformer units being introduced, representing a 124% increase in line construction and a 140% increase in transformer units.

Senior manager for grid planning Leslie Naidoo admitted that the figures were both “scary and large”, particularly in light of Eskom’s financial and capacity constraints.

Capital had been secured for the period to 2026 but was yet to be nailed down for the subsequent period.

Servitude acquisition also posed a risk to implementation, as did the weakened state of the domestic supply chain, with both the manufacturing and construction sectors having been negatively affected by Eskom’s previous stop-start investment profile.

Given the urgency of the programme, and its size, the new Eskom Transmission board had established a TDP delivery steering committee to oversee the roll-out, and a programme office had been set up to drive implementation.

While the expansion would seek to unlock capacity in provinces such as the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape – where independent power producers ran into serious capacity constraints during the most recent renewables procurement round – Eskom indicated that the limitations on the grid would not be eased immediately.

Strategic grid planning senior manager Ronald Marais cautioned that capacity remained highly constrained in the country’s best solar and wind resource areas, which were also far from load centres.

Generation investment would, thus, have to be directed to other regions in the interim to create space and time for further transmission development.

However, Eskom was considering various short-term interventions, including through the introduction of battery energy storage in the Northern Cape. Batteries, Marais explained, could offer some relief by creating additional load in the area, while supporting the transmission grid to provide additional export capacity out of the area.

Grid capacity was expected to become available in Mpumalanga, however, as coal stations were decommissioned. The TDP assumes that 14 GW of coal capacity will be shut over the five-year period to 2031.

The plan is also premised on “moderate” yearly demand growth of 2% over the per...

Isuzu Motors South Africa (IMSAf) this week welcomed the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel to its plant in Struandale, Gqeberha.

Patel previously visited Isuzu in 2019, shortly before the announcement that the Japanese manufacturer would invest R1.2-billion into its next-generation bakkie build programme in South Africa, with the vehicle destined for the local and wider sub-Saharan African export markets.

The decision resulted in securing the 1 000 jobs at Isuzu’s operations in Gqeberha and across its national and international dealer network, as well as around 25 000 jobs at IMSAf suppliers across the country.

IMSAf president and CEO Billy Tom updated the ministerial delegation on the progress made on the investment programme, including the required manufacturing plant upgrades to produce the new vehicle, as well as the state of readiness to launch the new Isuzu D-Max bakkie in early 2022.

Next year will also see the launch of Isuzu’s next-generation trucks, all locally assembled in Gqeberha.

Extensive building has taken place over the past two years to ready the production facility for Isuzu’s new light-commercial and heavy-commercial vehicles.

The investment involves significant upgrades to tooling and equipment, as well as the refurbishment of the current assembly line to support an extension in the manufacturing of the current Isuzu models.

“Our focus remains on being able to ensure the sustainability of Isuzu’s operations in South Africa,” said Tom.

“We are committed to transformation and believe that an inclusive economy is the foundation to economic prosperity for all citizens,” he added.

“In September Isuzu announced it had maintained an automotive industry-leading level one in its broad-based black economic empowerment audit for a second consecutive year.”

While no jobs at IMSAf were lost during the pandemic in 2020 as a result of adjusted shifts, four-day work weeks and a salary freeze for management, Tom said he was looking forward to pre-Covid-level economic growth in the country.

In 2019, the automotive industry contributed around 7% to South Africa’s gross domestic product, supporting more than 100 000 jobs.

Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) on October 26 officially launched the Corolla Cross production line at its assembly plant in Prospecton, KwaZulu-Natal.

The plant is able to produce 111 Corolla Cross vehicles a day, or about 30 000 units a year, for export to more than 40 countries.

The facility now produces what is Toyota's first hybrid electric vehicle (EV), which is an important step towards a carbon neutral future.

TSAM continues to produce its signature Hilux and Fortuner vehicles at the assembly plant.

TSAM CEO Andrew Kirby noted that the company had spent close to R6.5-billion to establish what is a flexible, high-tech assembly plant.

Witnessing the first Corolla Cross coming off the production line, President Cyril Ramaphosa lauded the new production line, emphasising its significance for the South African economy and the thousands of jobs Toyota supports.

He added that it was significant that South Africa was one of seven global locations chosen for the production of the Corolla Cross.

"This is testament to the skilled, productive workforce and competitive plant at Prospecton."

The new production line added 575 new jobs at the site and 1 200 new jobs in TSAM's supplier base to accommodate the Corolla Cross assembly.

Kirby pointed out that TSAM procures 620 of its component types locally, from 56 suppliers.

Ramaphosa highlighted that TSAM planned to ramp up its projected hybrid vehicle production if the availability of batteries improved.

"This could provide great opportunities in the future for localisation. Localisation and transformation are critical pillars to the Automotive Masterplan and we are working with Toyota to ensure the Corolla Cross is giving practical implementation to both these pillars.

"There are a number of initiatives by Toyota to improve local content and increase the number of new suppliers into South Africa from the global supply chain, as well as using and developing new suppliers locally," he said.

Ramaphosa further noted that the launch of the Corolla Cross hybrid vehicle was an important step in South Africa's path to transforming the automotive manufacturing business into a "green energy success story".

"We have identified three key priorities for climate action: for Eskom to reduce its carbon emissions, for EVs to be produced in South Africa and for the green hydrogen economy to be fast-tracked locally.

"Government published a draft paper for public comment on a roadmap to the production of fully-electric vehicles, which will be taken further based on the discussions with international partners and the local industry," he said.

TSAM plans to invest R2.5-billion in its carbon neutrality efforts, including expanding its current installed solar photovoltaic capacity from 5 MW to 30 MW. It will buy the balance of its power requirements from renewable energy generators by 2028.

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel has officially opened multinational specialty pharmaceutical company Aspen’s general anaesthetics production line at its flagship manufacturing site in Gqeberha.

This manufacturing capability will convert Aspen’s Gqeberha facility into one of the largest manufacturing hubs for general anaesthetic products in the world.

The unveiling of the general anaesthetics line follows shortly on the heels of a visit by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year at the start of the production of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.

Officiating at the opening of Aspen’s facility, Patel said the facility “consolidates the Eastern Cape as the most significant advanced pharmaceutical hub on the African continent and it will create local jobs”.

This is of particular importance, considering that, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa has experienced significant job losses, with small and the large businesses having faced closures and many having experienced revenue losses.

The start of operations is “timely” as anaesthetics are a class of drug that, among other uses, supports the treatment of Covid-19 patients who are on ventilators in intensive care units.

South Africa has, to date, imported the general anaesthetics needed in our healthcare system and the new production line will provide an important medical product for the local market, assuring security of supply, and the bulk of it will be exported across the world, contributing to global patient support.

Meanwhile, Aspen’s facility is able to produce up to 300-million Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine doses a year at full production. Should all raw materials be available, this figure will be ramped up to 415-million doses by February next year, which Patel cited as an “extraordinary achievement”.

Aspen intends to increase production further to 700-million doses by 2023.

In terms of international trade, however, Patel said the anaesthetic production line will allow South Africa to “bring something to the trading relationship”.

The anaesthetic lab time will immediately start generating business and will likely grow to more than R1.2-billion in yearly turnover by 2027.

Aspen group CEO Stephen Saad said the opening of the general anaesthetics manufacturing line is a “significant milestone” for Aspen as it will serve as a crucial anaesthetics hub for this critical medication.

“This is one of the world’s largest general anaesthetics production lines and it positively positions Aspen’s integrated supply, marketing, and sale of anaesthetics globally,” he commented.

Aspen has invested more than R3-billion in this facility, making it the “single largest investment in the pharmaceutical industry in the country” and aligns with Aspen’s commitment to supporting the industrialisation of South Africa.

Sterile Focus Brands, comprising anaesthetic and thrombosis products, is one of Aspen’s key business segments and contributes 28% of its revenue.

The general anaesthetics production line extends Aspen’s sterile footprint and complements the group’s strategic vision of delivering quality, affordable medicines using high-technology pharmaceutical equipment, contributing to improved health outcomes for patients.

ETG Logistics (ETGL) has announced that it is expanding its product and service offering to the farming and automotive sectors.

ETGL is the logistics vertical of ETG, a global conglomerate with business interests across various industries.

ETGL operates in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya, with plans to increase its footprint in east and Southern Africa, among other regions.

ETGL’s new made-in-India VST tillers and tractors range covers tractors from 18.5 hp (13.7 kW) four-wheel drive to 50 hp (37.28 kW), and small farm mechanisation implements like power weeders, power reapers and power tillers ranging from 5 hp (3.7 kW) to 16 hp (11.8 kW).

The range is suited for small and emerging farmers where affordable mechanisation is a key requirement, says ETGL.

For larger, commercial farmers, ETGL now offers the Belarus tractor range, with engine outputs in the 80 hp (59.7 kW) to 450 hp (333.0 kW) range, as well as the Deutz Fahr tractor range, with engine outputs ranging from 55 hp (41.0 kW) to 160 hp (119.3 kW).

ETGL has entered into a joint venture with Aftrade DMCC to import and distribute the tractor range in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, eSwatini, Botswana, Kenya and Uganda.

The manufacturer of Belarus tractors, Minsk Tractor Works, was founded in 1946 and supplies more than 200 tractor models and modifications to more than 150 countries.

“Southern and East Africa is a strategic market for Belarus, and our product range meets the expectations of small, medium and large private farmers,” says Minsk Tractor Works CEO Vitaly Vovk.

“We have been exporting the tractors globally over 75 years and established Belarus Tractor as one of the leading tractor brands globally, therefore, we see no reason why we shouldn’t be represented in East and Southern Africa. We are confident on the performance of our tractors in the region.”

ETGL has also announced the introduction of the TVS range of two-wheel motorcycles, scooters and three-wheel delivery vehicles, from India, with engines ranging in output from 125 cc to 310 cc.

While the motorcycle and scooter range is expected to find acceptance with delivery users, inner city and private aspirational commuters, as well as the agricultural segment, the three-wheelers are aimed at the delivery market.

As a part of their mobility solutions, ETGL has also introduced TGB quad bikes, or all-terrain vehicles, from Taiwan, targeting customers in a range of segments such as farming, security, game reserves and travel and tourism, in addition to private owners purchasing ATVs for leisure purposes.

“The expansion of our product offering will create more opportunities for the group to delve deeper into the Southern and East African farm equipment market, serving a wide range of agricultural customers,” says ETGL CEO Rajeev Saxena.

“The introduction of two-wheeler and three-wheeler products will now also expand our scope of activities into mobility solutions, aligning with our logistics vertical.”

State-owned electricity utility Eskom says its reliability maintenance recovery (RMR) interventions have not yet succeeded in stabilising the performance of its unpredictable coal fleet and that more than a year of ongoing maintenance is needed to address the poor performance of its generation assets.

When Eskom announced the RMR in early 2020, it indicated that it expected that the intervention would help ease, albeit not eliminate, the risk of load-shedding by about October this year.

However, COO Jan Oberholzer reported on Monday that the recovery effort was taking longer than initially envisaged and had also been set back, initially, by the onset of Covid-19 and, more recently, by the hydrogen explosion at Medupi Unit 4 in August, which caused severe damage to the generator, as well as a fire, in September, at the Kendal Unit 1 generator transformer.

“Initially, we believed that 18 months of implementing reliability maintenance would take us to a situation where we could minimize and reduce the risk of load-shedding – we never said that we would eliminate load-shedding.

“However, what has happened with Medupi 4 and Kendal 1 has set us back quite drastically,” Oberholzer said, while restating Eskom’s long-standing position that the country required between 4 000 MW and 6 000 MW of additional capacity to create the space required for Eskom to implement the RMR.

Progress to date has been disappointing, with the energy availability factor (EAF) of the coal fleet having slumped to below 65% for the year-to-date, precipitating periods of load-shedding.

The current EAF is well below Eskom’s 70% target and is also significantly below the 67.9% reported for the same period to the end of September 2020.

As of October 25, Eskom had resorted to 29 days of load-shedding since the start of its financial year on April 1, most of which having been implemented at Stage 2, representing simultaneous rotational cuts of 2 000 MW.

During Eskom’s full financial year to the end of March, 47 days of load-shedding were declared.

The load-shedding prognosis for the rest of the current financial year remained precarious, owing to high levels of unplanned outages and Eskom’s commitment to continue with the RMR.

Oberholzer said the poor performance had been exacerbated by the Medupi and Kendal incidents, which added 1 300 MW to the utility’s long-term unplanned losses, which have averaged above 11 600 MW for the year to date

Breakdowns had typically surged to above 15 000 MW during bouts of load-shedding, as was the case with the most recent cuts in late October.

Unplanned load losses have averaged 23.1% for the year-to-date, against a target of 18%, with partial load losses contributing a whopping 4 612 MW.

Planned maintenance has been sustained at the 9% target level, or above 4 500 MW.

Group executive for transmission Segomoco Scheppers reported that the summer plan had been adjusted for what would be a protracted outage at Medupi Unit 4, where the final incident report was still to be published.

BIG DIESEL DEPENDENCE

The plan pointed to a higher-than-planned dependency on diesel generation to manage the power system this summer.

The utility had already spent R2.44-billion on diesel by October 11 to operate its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) and was poised to exceed its projection of spending R4.1-billion on the fuel for the year as a whole.

Eskom’s reliance on the OCGTs was unlikely to be sufficient to shield South Africans entirely from load-shedding, however.

In fact, Scheppers cautioned the public to “expect an increased risk of load-shedding while the RMR programme was being implemented”.

“For the most part the System Operator will need to source operating reserves from demand response products, as well as from emergency reserve sources, such as interruptible load-shedding and OCGTs,” Scheppers explained, when delivering a presentation on the ‘summer plan’.

The plan’s base case – which models for ongoing RMR at about the 9% level, as well a...

Daimler Trucks and Buses Southern Africa (DTBSA) has handed over a fleet of 90 Mercedes-Benz Actros 2645LS trucks to Bakers South Africa (SA).

This purchase adds to Bakers’ current fleet of nearly 650 vehicles, which comprises 100% of Mercedes-Benz Truck products.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks, a division of DTBSA, and Bakers SA have enjoyed a more than 40-year partnership, which began when the privately-owned family business bought its first Mercedes-Benz Truck in the early 1970s.

Today, Bakers SA is a specialist in warehousing and distribution across South Africa and into neighbouring countries.

DTBSA has also handed over 43 Fuso Canter light-duty trucks to City Logistics, in Durban.

City Logistics has a national footprint across all major centres and cross-border into Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland.

With a customer base predominantly made up of major retailers and distributors, City Logistics offers services in distribution, line haul, advertising and warehousing.

The newest truck handover marks a milestone in the expansion of City Logistics’ fleet, which has now doubled the volume of Fuso trucks, taking the total fleet of the company to about 1 200 vehicles.

The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and its N3 toll concessionaire (N3TC) recorded almost R100-million in losses and damage during the July civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal, and some other parts of the country, says outgoing Sanral CEO Skhumbuzo Macozoma.

He says Sanral suffered R50-million in lost toll income during the period, with N3TC losing R30-million in toll income.

The damage to infrastructure and additional security costs over the period reached R12-million.

N3TC recorded R7.5-million in damage, largely at the Mooi River toll plaza.

“We asked [National] Treasury for an unseen budget adjustment allocation of R62-million to cover the costs we have incurred.

“We also processed the force majeure application for N3TC for them to be able to claim their losses from insurance,”says Macozoma, who requested, and has been granted, a leave of absence from November 17 until his contract ends on November 30.

Sanral has appointed Lehlohonolo Pitse, the company’s current chief audit executive, as acting CEO, with effect from November 17 and until a new CEO takes up the position. The board is said to be at an advanced stage of the CEO recruitment process.

Macozoma says the “history of targeting key Sanral facilities came in very handy” as the agency worked to absorb the events in July.

The Mooi River toll plaza and parts of the N2 North Coast are frequent targets during incidents of civil unrest.

The history related to these events assisted Sanral in responding to the July unrest “a lot more rapidly than would have been the case otherwise . . . because we had existing platforms to take advantage of.

“Established systems for surveillance of incidents on national roads and at toll facilities also enabled the collection of real-time data – and evidence – that we were then able to use in our response plan.”

Macozoma also praises local and provincial government, Sanral concessionaire partners and toll operators for their part in addressing the unrest as it spilled over onto KwaZulu-Natal’s freeway network.

Sanral’s routine maintenance contractors were also instrumental in assessing damage to the road infrastructure, while tow-truck operators were deployed to remove blockages from the road as rapidly as possible.

The bill from the July unrest added to the one Covid-19 had already delivered to Sanral, with the roads agency recording a R640-million loss in toll revenue during the earlier, more strict lockdowns.

However, says Macozoma, the “bounceback was a lot more positive that we expected”.

“Once the lockdown reached levels 3 and 2, we got a lot more traffic, and by level 2 were at well over 95% of pre-Covid travel on our roads again.”

Macozoma spoke at an October Transport Forum event

The South African government is set to establish a high-level technical workstream, which will work under the direction of a Cabinet subcommittee, to evaluate possible concessional finance offers that could be made in support of the country’s just energy transition strategy.

The workstream is yet to be formally assembled, but Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy says it will include finance specialists from the National Treasury, the Department of Public Enterprises, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Eskom and possibly others.

The workstream will advise the Cabinet committee on whether the climate finance offers that could arise, after South Africa tables its proposed ‘Just Energy Transition Financing Facility’ with potential funders on the sidelines of the main COP26 climate talks, are “good or bad” for the country and Eskom.

The debt-laden utility is hoping to raise R400-billion over the coming ten years for transition projects in generation, transmission and distribution.

Cabinet has endorsed the facility, first proposed by Eskom, but has broadened its focus beyond the State-owned utility and the electricity sector to include transition projects in the automotive and hydrogen sectors.

The Cabinet subcommittee is made up of Ministers drawn primarily from the economic cluster and includes Creecy, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande and Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel.

Creecy tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly that the finance workstream is one of five established under the aegis of the Cabinet subcommittee, with the others focusing on Eskom, green hydrogen, electric vehicles and the regulatory and policy support needed for the transition.

The finance workstream, Creecy says, will seek to ensure “synergy” across government on its approach to any possible concessional finance for the transition and ensure that National Treasury has ongoing visibility and input on any possible transactions.

The workstream will have to answer the “complex questions” on whether or not the offers are truly concessional in nature, as well as conditionalities and whether the mix between grants, concessional loans and commercial finance is appropriate in the context of South Africa’s current debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, which has breached the 80% level.

It will also have to assess whether or not the funding can be absorbed under the current Eskom guarantees envelope, should the lenders demand government guarantees.

Creecy, who will lead the South African delegation at COP26, stresses that she does not expect to return from Glasgow, Scotland, with signed and sealed deals.

She does, however, intend to have several meetings with potential donor governments and multilateral lending institutions where she will outline the “first phase” of the financing facility, which will have a strong Eskom bias as a result of the work the utility has already done to prepare a pipeline of transition projects.

The facility has been conceptualised as a multitranche, multiyear facility, funded by a multilender syndicate, designed to secure concessional loan finance for decarbonisation projects, as well as grants that could be used to support workers, communities and firms that are vulnerable to a transition away from coal.

Creecy says that South Africa aims to ensure that climate finance instruments include a mix of grants, concessional loans and private investment that avoids further exacerbating either the national debt or Eskom’s debt.

While South Africa remains unhappy with the scale of climate finance being made available to support mitigation and adaptation projects in developing countries, it nevertheless believes such finance could become more accessible after COP26.

The country’s proposed facility has also reportedly received a positi...

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about the final countdown to COP26, the South African government's negotiating stance and its plans to canvass a just energy transition financing facility.