South African energy and chemicals group Sasol has teamed up with Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) to lead a consortium of German and South African partners that will research and optimise the catalysts required to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on a commercial scale through Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz presided over the launch of the research project dubbed ‘CARE-O-SENE’, or Catalyst Research for Sustainable Kerosene, at a function hosted at Sasol’s Sandton head office this week.

The project will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Sasol and the other consortium partners are the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Cape Town’s department of chemical engineering and Ineratec.

Separately, Sasol is partnering with Linde, Enertrag and Navitas in a bid to produce SAF, using green hydrogen and sustainable carbon dioxide sources, under Germany’s H2Global platform.

Sasol has indicated that it is initially aiming to produce 15 000 t/y of SAF at its Secunda operation, in Mpumalanga, before scaling up yearly production to 2.5-million tons.

CARE-O-SENE will run for three years with the goal of developing the catalysts – used to speed up chemical reactions, increase yield and improve fuel quality – required for large-scale commercialisation of ‘green kerosene’ production by 2025.

Sasol reports that the new FT catalysts are expected to increase the fuel yield of the process to over 80%.

Speaking at the CARE-O-SENE launch, Sasol CEO Fleetwood Grobler said the group’s expertise in FT technology and catalysts made it an ideal partner to help Germany and the world decarbonise the aviation sector and make it sustainable over the long term.

HZB Scientific MD Professor Dr Bernd Rech added that the research would enable accelerated innovation in a crucial field of green energy.

“This can only be achieved in a global partnership by deeply integrating fundamental research and technology development on an industry-relevant scale,” Rech said.

Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille, during her budget vote speech to Parliament on May 24, emphasised the importance of building and maintaining infrastructure to support national economic development objectives.

"Infrastructure is vital for the wellbeing of our communities and to help grow our economy," she said.

The National Infrastructure Plan 2050 (NIP 2050), gazetted in March, is the long-term plan for infrastructure development across the country. It aims to ensure there is a long-term plan for infrastructure to drive economic and social transformation to achieve National Development Plan (NDP) goals and beyond, De Lille said.

South Africa’s NDP sets out clear economic development targets, which is further supported by the Infrastructure Investment Plan and the NIP 2050. The Infrastructure Investment Plan is central to the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), which is aimed at creating jobs, and has started bringing the construction industry back to life, she noted.

"Recent events have again laid bare the importance of infrastructure and ensuring that we not only build new infrastructure but maintain existing infrastructure. We must build and maintain infrastructure taking the severe impacts of climate change into consideration," she added.

"An additional R1.6-trillion in public sector infrastructure investment is required by 2030, over and above what is forecasted for current public sector entities. This will be achieved by, among other efforts, building private sector confidence in the capacity and capability of the State to deliver bankable public infrastructure projects," she said.

The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has started the implementation of the first three years of the NIP 2050.

It has also started with the drafting of the second phase of the NIP, which will focus on social infrastructure and related municipal services, as well as approaches to strengthening coordination through the District Development Model approach. This will be finalised in the 2022/23 financial year.

Further, Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) was established following approval by Cabinet in 2020 and is working to drive the Infrastructure Investment Plan through project unblocking, unlocking funding, and monitoring and reporting on the implementation of priority projects.

Meanwhile, the DPWI has been involved in five work streams and interventions to assist in the reconstruction efforts in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to mitigate the effects of the recent flood disaster.

"A database of more than 300 built environment professionals has been made available to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to help assess, scope, cost, design and implement critical reconstruction and building of damaged infrastructure," De Lille said.

Departmental resources will focus on the current 53 government-owned buildings in KwaZulu-Natal and the 12 government-owned buildings in Eastern Cape which have been damaged by the floods to make them usable, she added.

"The department has also identified 258 land parcels, while the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works and Human Settlements has identified a further 25 land parcels. These land parcels are being assessed for suitability for the resettlement of displaced communities by the Housing Development Agency.

Meanwhile, to date, 52 sites in KwaZulu-Natal in need of bridges have been identified. The construction of the first 18 bridges in KwaZulu-Natal is to commence from June 1.

In the Eastern Cape, technical assessments have been done at 20 bridge sites. DPWI has reassigned more capacity to assist the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Departments of Transport and affected municipalities.

Further, in terms of the State of the Nation commitments on the Welisizwe Rural Bridges programme, 96 bridges are planned for the 2022/23 financial year, De Lille said.

These will be built in the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpop...

Sales of new vehicles in Africa have started to recover from a “disastrous” pandemic-hit 2020, says the African Association of Motor Manufacturers (AAAM).

Fresh vehicle sales statistics, compiled for AAAM by the Africa Automotive Data Network for Africa (AADN), show that 2021 sales increased to 1.13-million units, up from 856 133 units in 2020.

The 2021 figure is still some 20 000 units below that of the 2019 number of 1.15-million units.

These numbers represent total industry sales volumes as reported by manufacturer by market.

For sub-Saharan Africa only, the volumes exclude heavy commercial vehicles, as these are not reported, but are estimated by AADN to be less than 5 000 units a year.

Of the 1.13-million new vehicles sold in 2021, 548 504 units were sold in North Africa; 499 087 units were sold within the Southern African Customs Union, with the remaining 83 658 new vehicles sold in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

New-vehicle sales volumes in South Africa improved by 32% in 2021, but were still down by 7% over 2019.

In the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, volumes increased by 15% in 2021, but were down by some 10% over 2019 volumes.

“The improved new-vehicle sales volumes in 2021 are encouraging and show that markets are recovering as life on the continent and many other places in the world is slowly normalising after the Covid pandemic,” says AAAM CEO David Coffey.

“We believe that this positive trend will continue into 2022 with the reported quarter-one sales for 2022 already some 9% up over 2021.

“Growth will also start to accelerate as more countries in Africa embrace the industrialisation and growth opportunity presented by the continental automotive strategy, which could see new vehicle sales reach 5-million units a year by 2035,” notes Coffey.

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has highlighted three key resource advantages that he argues could transform the coal province of Mpumalanga into a global “flagship” of the just energy transition.

In an address to the Mpumalanga Energy Summit, De Ruyter argued that the province’s skilled human resources, its access to grid infrastructure and its solar and wind resources, which were superior to those in most other jurisdictions, even if not the best in the country, placed it in a strong position to transition to renewables.

“The worst solar radiation in South Africa is orders of magnitude better than anything available in Europe, with the exception of Spain.”

De Ruyter said that the province’s coal heritage meant that it was already home to many technically skilled people, who could be retrained to build and operate renewable-energy plants, become employed in the manufacture of renewables components, or become active in other new industries emerging as a result of the repurposing of old power stations.

Eskom plans to integrate a large retraining component to the repurposing and repowering of the Komati power station, which has been identified as pilot site for its initial just energy transition roll-out later this year.

Speaking after an address by Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, he urged national and provincial government to pursue the development of a special economic zone in the province, where solar and wind components could be produced for domestic roll-out as well as for export.

The province’s extensive grid infrastructure was held up as a key competitive advantage to the province attracting new renewables investment, particularly given that Eskom estimated that it would take about ten years to extend the network to the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape provinces, where the country’s best renewables acreage is located.

Eskom is seeking to leverage that grid advantage in the near-term by inviting renewables developers to bid for long-term leases on grid-ready land in and around two of its power stations in the province.

De Ruyter reported that 21 bids had been received from independent power producers keen to take advantage of the market reform allowing projects below 100 MW in size to proceed without a licence and to wheel electricity over the network.

Eskom expects to announce the winning bidders by the end of June.

Making the transition a just one, however, would require a leveraging of Mpumalanga’s advantages in a way that prioritised support for workers, communities and businesses whose lives and livelihoods were tied to the coal value chain.

However, it also required an acknowledgement of the inevitability of the transition from coal, including by vested interests that were currently engaging in a “concerted fight-back campaign”.

“You would have seen media reports of extensive sabotage at some of our power stations.

“This is completely deplorable and, to my mind, utterly incomprehensible that anybody would want to deprive hospitals, schools, businesses, factories and homes of electricity through acts of sabotage.

“The irony, of course, is that those individuals engaging in these acts are, in fact, accelerating the demise of the coal fleet by making it less reliable.”

Any just transition should also seek to secure concessional financing and spend such money “responsibly, wisely and without attracting corruption”.

European Union (EU) deputy head of delegation Raul de Luzenberger confirmed that work was under way to advance the just energy transition offer made to South Africa as part of a political declaration concluded with the EU, France, Germany, the UK and the US at COP26 in November.

The political declaration included an offer of $8.5-billion to support South Africa’s transition.

“In support of this partnership, France, Germany, and the EU have committed over R50-billion for the first phase of financing, through various mechanisms, like grants and concessional loans, increasing in the future as necessary,” De Luzen...

The board of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has instructed Sanral management to readvertise and award the R17.47-billion in tenders the board cancelled earlier in May, citing “material irregularities”, within the next four months.

Speaking at a media conference in Centurion on Monday, Sanral board chairperson Themba Mhambi added that the board would recruit an independent public institution with infrastructure expertise to assist with the process to advertise and adjudicate the tenders, and to make a recommendation to the board on the winning bidders.

This body has been identified, he noted, but not yet employed.

“This process has been soiled and its integrity has been compromised internally within Sanral,” said Mhambi. “We are clear as a board that prima facie evidence exists of people speaking to the very bidders from inside Sanral, based on the media articles we are seeing.”

The tenders which the Sanral board did not approve are the Mtentu Bridge Wild Coast project, on the N2, valued at R3.4-billion; the rehabilitation of the R56 Matatiele, in the Eastern Cape, at R1-billion; the N3 Ashburton interchange, in KwaZulu-Natal, at R1.8-billion; and improvements to the EB Cloete interchange (N2 and N3 connection point in KwaZulu-Natal), at R4.3-billion.

The Open Road Tolling tender in Gauteng, valued at R6.88-billion, lapsed and was not renewed.

Sanral noted in an earlier statement that the tenders were cancelled owing to “a material irregularity in the tender process” where a resolution made by its board in January, 2020, was not implemented in the evaluation of the affected tenders.

Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said on Monday that he was awaiting a report from the board on the matter. He emphasised that it was important not to repeat the mistakes made during the State capture era, or to allow malfeasance for the sake of expediency.

Mbalula advised “those aggrieved” by the cancellation to challenge the decision in court.

2020 Board Resolution

Mhambi explained that all of the five cancelled tenders had one thing in common – the absence of the implementation of a resolution of the Sanral board regarding the separation of duties.

He said the board discovered in January 2020 that the construction contractor bid evaluation process within Sanral had a “major and potentially corruptive flaw”.

He said the process allowed the same service provider which developed the design drawings and technical specifications for projects (which are then advertised), to also be the party to determine, on a technical level, which bid would be recommended for award to the bid evaluation committee.

“Now if that is not a conflict of interest; if that does not have the potential to promote corruption, someone must tell me we are crazy as a board,” said Mhambi.

“In 2020 we said that the consultants involved in the drawing up of specifications should not be involved in the evaluation of the technical submissions by bidders. Let another independent engineering consultant look at the bids and make a recommendation.

“Then we discovered that our recommendation has not been affected, and we sanctioned the award of these tenders . . . as violating an internal control.

“Contrary to the board’s instructions in all the tenders at issue, the design of the project and development of the technical specifications was the same individual or entity which decided on the technical bids to be considered for award.

“One person doing all these things is extremely dangerous, as it effectively makes one service provider almost the sole determiner about who gets Sanral contracts. It flies in the face of a fair, equitable, cost-efficient and transparent procurement process,” said Mhambi.

“No one could guarantee that no collusion took place.”

Other Lapses

While all five contracts were found wanting with regards to the 2020 resolution, other lapses were also discovered in the Mtentu, Ashburton and the Open Road Tolling projects.

With the process to...

The City of Johannesburg says it plans to partner with independent power producers (IPPs) on a R26-billion electricity investment strategy, which is designed to end load-shedding and place City Power on a more financially and environmentally sustainable footing.

The strategy involves a diversification of electricity sources away from Eskom, which currently provides the city with 90% of its power, while also securing City Power’s revenue, which was currently threatened by grid defection, theft and the prospect of a “utility death spiral”.

Executive Mayor Mpho Phalatse told participants at a two-day energy indaba that the city recognised that it did not have the funding to keep up with the required electricity investment, noting that its entire yearly infrastructure budget was R7.7-billion for power, water, roads and other municipals services.

Private-public partnerships were “the most feasible way forward” and the city was, thus, planning to approach the market in the not-too-distant future in a bid to procure cleaner and cheaper electricity for its six-million residents.

Phalatse said the legislative and regulatory frameworks presented no “fatal impediments to our plans”, as a municipality was allowed to procure its own electricity, while the Integrated Resource Plan catered for embedded generation.

She also noted that generators below 100 MW in size were now allowed to proceed without first having to be licensed by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

“Against this background, the City of Johannesburg is indeed entering the most exciting energy era in our history.

“It is exciting because indications are that the city is positioning itself to become more energy independent, with less reliance on Eskom for our power needs,” Phalatse enthused.

City Power chairperson Ambassador Douglas Gibson said the utility itself would seek to transform from a distributor of mostly Eskom electricity into an energy provider, able to supply reliable power in partnership with IPPs and “prosumers”.

City Power’s four imperatives currently, he added, were to provide reliable supply, make a profit, deliver on the council’s strategy and to restructure the business so that it was both forward-looking and able to honour its environmental, social and governance obligations.

“To achieve these imperatives, City Power . intends embarking on a journey to inboard alternative energy solutions into our grid systems, primarily through renewable energy technologies.

“The aim is to enhance energy security and alleviate the enormous challenges of continuous energy interruptions,” Gibson explained.

Acting City Power CEO Tshifularo Mavasha added that the utility was fully aware that an energy transition was under way “whether we like it or not”.

“I recognise that our customers have started moving, they are already embracing the energy transition [and many] of our customers are installing solar photovoltaics on their rooftops.

“Now here's the thing, at City Power we applaud our customers for doing that and we come here today to say we want to partner with our customers on that journey,” Mavasha said.

Environment and Infrastructure Services MMC Michael Sun said that the upcoming request for proposal (RFP) documentation would draw lessons from the indaba and promised that the procurement process would be conducted “honestly, transparently and in the best interests of our residents”.

He provided no details on a possible timeframe for the release of the RFP, nor on what or how much electricity the city would be seeking to procure, however.

South African Independent Power Producer Association chairperson Thomas Garner outlined a vision for the removal of the billing, tariff and infrastructure obstacles to investment by IPPs and to creating more sustainable and secure electricity supply in the city.

Garner also urged City Power to shift its focus from electricity supplier to that of a grid and system operator and to overhaul the tariff structure in such a way a...

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has confirmed the registration of the first two 100 MW projects following the August 2021 amendment of Schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act allowing sub-100 MW projects to proceed without a licence.

Both solar photovoltaic projects are located in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality of the North West province and are being developed, financed, constructed and operated by the Sola Group, and its partners, for Tronox Mineral Sands.

The projects will cost R3.2-billion to build.

“The significance of this first move is that it will pave the way for many more large-scale private projects to receive approvals to be able to contribute to generation capacity to the grid,” Sola CEO Dom Wills says in a statement.

“Further, this is a clear signal to the market that private power is achievable and there are private funders that are excited to finance this market.”

The Presidency’s project management office head Rudi Dicks also confirmed the registration of the projects with Engineering News, while Nersa confirmed them to be the first registration of projects larger than 10 MW.

Sola tells Engineering News that registration took 73 days.

African Rainbow Energy, which is Sola’s largest shareholder and an equity partner in the solar projects, reported that the developments had received significant assistance from the Presidency, which has been working, through Operation Vulindlela, to ease the remaining red tape preventing such projects from securing registration.

“These projects are starting to realise this commitment as well as African Rainbow Energy’s commitment to use new technology to provide large-scale clean power solutions for the economy,” CEO Brian Dames says, adding that the company intends honouring its South Africa Investment Conference pledge to invest R3-billion in the domestic electricity sector.

Dicks has reported previously that various systemic and project-specific actions are being taken to unlock an investment pipeline of 58 projects, with a combined energy generating potential of 4 547 MW and a combined investment value of R54-billion.

These projects are being pursued by independent power producers (IPPs) in partnership with miners and other energy intensive companies.

Besides Nersa registration, the projects are also battling to secure environmental impact assessment (EIA) authorisations as well as budget quotes for grid connection from Eskom.

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter has announced that the utility’s Grid Access Unit has been beefed up to ensure the flow of cost-estimate letters and budget quotes for the projects, while Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Barbara Creecy reports that she has written to provincial environment MECs to enquire whether they require any assistance in processing EIAs.

Sola reports that financial close of the projects is expected in July, following which the projects, which have a 30-year expected life, will require a construction period of 14 months before entering commercial operation.

The developments, the company reports, will also make use of the electricity wheeling framework, enabled by Eskom.

Under the mechanism, for which Eskom charges a wheeling fee, energy produced by an IPP in one Eskom connected area, can be sold to clients in other Eskom connected areas.

“The advantage of the wheeling framework is that it allows perfect solar regions to be developed and used to provide power to perfect industrial and mining regions,” says Wills.

He describes a perfect solar region as a flat area, with high solar resource, very little environmental or social impact, uncomplicated underground conditions and access to a strong grid node with good power evacuation potential.

"The projects will have around 28 GWh of excess energy per year that Sola is marketing to interested Eskom-connected clients on a wheeling basis."

A new forum comprising Eskom, Transnet and domestic industrialists is to be established to improve collaboration between the two large infrastructure-focused State-owned companies and domestic manufacturers and suppliers.

The initiative was unveiled by Ministers Pravin Gordhan and Ebrahim Patel in their respective Budget Votes on May 20 and comes at a time when domestic industry is warning that inadequate and erratic demand, together with power cuts and collapsing freight logistics, pose a threat to manufacturing entities and their employees.

“Minister Pravin Gordhan and I have agreed to launch a forum to bring together Eskom, Transnet and other entities with industrialists in key sectors to enhance collaboration, advance planning, and problem solving.

“This will enable a better climate for investment and job creation,” Patel said, stressing that energy and logistics were vital to the success of the country’s industrialisation efforts.

Gordhan added that the forum would foster a better climate for investment and job creation.

Patel also announced that government would prioritise the protection of the electrical grid and rail network from “the continued threat of scrap metal syndicates”.

“By the end of July, we will have developed and tabled a draft policy on scrap metal, which will introduce a blend of domestic and export measures to address illegal trade in copper cable and scrap metal.”

Ahead of the speeches, Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa president Elias Monage warned that government’s industrialisation ambitions would remain a “pipe dream” in the absence of stable and affordable electricity supply.

Speaking at a conference held to assess progress on the Steel Master Plan, Monage said the power disruptions had become particularly challenging for downstream metals fabricators, which were also confronted with rising costs and low demand.

He said low demand, especially from State-owned companies, had emerged as a key threat to many firms.

National Union of Metalworkers general-secretary Irvin Jim even went as far as to describe Eskom, Transnet and ArcelorMittal South Africa as the country’s new “triple challenge”, traditionally described as being poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Jim argued that their underperformance and pricing policies were leading to the closure of small manufacturing firms and to the retrenchment of workers.

Meanwhile, Solidarity deputy general secretary Marius Croucamp argued that the poor performance of Transnet and the ongoing vandalism of the rail network posed an existential threat to upstream and downstream companies and their workers.

“If Transnet can’t deliver, then this industry cannot delivery,” Croucamp said, stressing that the solution to the crisis lay outside of the master plan and required government intervention.

Unless addressed, overcapacity would remain, he said, and there would be limited potential for new investment and job creation in the sector.

Patel reported that he planned to convene an extended meeting of the Steel Master Plan oversight committee where these issue could be raised directly with himself, Gordhan, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and the infrastructure office in the Presidency.

“Let’s sit and just share ideas of what needs to be done and what can be done.”

A day after Eskom confirmed incidents of sabotage at its Tutuka power station, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan alleged that another incident of sabotage had taken place at the Hendrina power station.

The Hendrina incident raises to six the number of incidents of suspected sabotage that have been reported to the South African Police Service since March 2021.

Addressing lawmakers on the occasion of his department’s Budget Vote, Gordhan said the Hendrina incident involved the theft of flexible copper bars next to the generator of a unit that was due to be returned to service.

The theft, which could only have been perpetrated by people “within the power station” itself, prevented the unit from being synchronised to the network and, thus, contributed to Eskom having to continue with the implementation of load-shedding.

“These are what engineers call single points of failure,” he said.

The incident follows confirmation by Eskom that two recent incidents at the Tutuka power station were being treated as acts of sabotage.

A cable was severed at Tutuka Unit 5, delaying the unit’s return to service by three days, and once located and repaired, it was discovered that the control air pipe supplying the turbine systems had been cut with a power tool causing a drop in the control air pressure and further delaying the unit’s return to service.

Eskom considered the incidents to be deliberate acts of sabotage by someone who had access to the site where only employees were allowed and had, thus, laid criminal charges with the South African Police Service.

In November, Eskom announced that the collapse of a distribution-line tower providing power to the coal conveyor system at the Lethabo power station, in the Free State, was a “deliberate act of sabotage”.

The sabotage occurred at about 18:00 on Wednesday November 17 and was implemented in such a way as to ensure that the tower collapsed onto a second distribution line, providing double redundancy to the conveyor system.

Eskom is also investigating an incident at the Duvha power station.

Gordhan said that all corruption and disruption, whether from within Eskom, or from “counter-revolutionary quarters or criminals outside” the utility had to be combatted.

“Amongst other revelations that have occurred over the past few days – the corruption with regard to the supply of oil and the cable that was cut at another power station – are all directly related to the load-shedding that we experience today, over and above other operational issues.”

Meanwhile, Gordhan announced that Eskom was taking urgent steps to improve the performance of its generation division, where the energy availability factor of the fleet had slumped to 58% year-to-date.

"Daily production and oversight meetings are held to hold power station management accountable for performance.

"An operations excellence initiative is also in place to identify the major causes of underperformance and to make improvements.

"At selected power stations war rooms will be set up to ensure that production challenges get tackled in a systematic way," he said.

Training and skills development were also being prioritised, given that "a lack of engineering and technical skills and experience in Eskom remains a significant challenge".

"A skills mentoring programme, using highly experienced power station managers, has been launched.

"This team will be deployed to power stations where load losses are particularly severe."

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Engineering News Editor Terence Creamer about whether the steel master plan is delivering; the lack of demand that is negatively impacting on the industry and how localisation could help to boost demand; and the electricity supply and rail and port challenges that remain key areas of concern for the industry.