POWER CRISIS
Gwede Mantashe has harsh words for Eskom as additional 1,759MW of renewables signed up
‘Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state,’ Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said as his department signed purchase agreements with independent power producers, securing 1,759MW of energy into the grid in the near future.
Thirteen more renewable projects have started the onboarding process into the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) Bid Window 5, adding a total capacity of nearly 1,759MW of energy generation to the grid in the near future.
The signing took place at a ceremony at the Independent Power Producers’ office in Centurion, Pretoria, on Thursday, 8 December, and now puts Bid Window 5 projects at 19 out of 25, with the rest yet to reach commercial close.
The signing was attended by the chosen bidders and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and was hosted by Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Director General Jacob Mbele, with an address by Eskom’s MD for Transmission, Segomoco Scheppers.
In total, the programme has signed on 1,909MW of energy to the grid.
However, with grid capacity constraints, the additional power becomes futile, particularly when the programme is still facing bottlenecks with the Independent Power Producers’ office waiting for exemptions from National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe. (Photo: Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams)
“We are from the period of State Capture, but load shedding is becoming worse than State Capture,” said Mantashe, adding that the levels of crime and sabotage were limiting economic growth.
“Any other government can be overthrown for this level of load shedding. Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state. If it is not addressed, then the state will be failing to do what it needs to do… load shedding is urgent; it must be attended to sooner than later.”
He said “we’re engaging with Eskom more aggressively and telling them to get investment into the grid as quickly as possible… energy is always used as a factor that attracts investment into the economy”.
Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe at the Bid Window 5 ceremony. (Photo: DMRE)
The signing ceremony comes a day after Eskom had announced Stage 6 load shedding, citing power station breakdowns and a lack of funds to buy diesel for its emergency generation fleet.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Power station breakdowns and less money to buy diesel force Eskom to escalate rolling blackouts to Stage 6”
A fourth announcement of Stage 6 load shedding highlights the urgent need for renewable energy as well as sufficient infrastructure to onboard this power onto the grid. In its Transmission Development Plan, Eskom said it needed 53GW of new additional generation capacity, particularly for renewable energy security.
Despite grid capacity constraints, Mantashe announced the five preferred bidders for Bid Window 6. They are:
- Kutlwano Solar Power Plant in North West;
- Boitumelo Solar Power Plant in North West;
- Virginia Solar Park in Free State;
- Good Hope Solar Park in Free State; and
- Doornhoek PV in North West.
Head of the IPP Office, Tshifhiwa Bernard Magoro, said in his address at the ceremony that 4,110MW of wind power under Bid Window 6 could not be allocated because of grid capacity that had already been allocated to the private sector. This also saw 2,200MW of PV in the Cape regions not being allocated.
The preferred bidders are expected to reach commercial close by April 2023, Magoro said.
The signed and announced preferred bidders will only see that energy generated between 12 to 24 months from their commercial closes, Mantashe said.
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Lea Giroux, senior business developer at Engie, a French part-state-owned IPP and gas distributor, is one of the companies that signed their purchase agreements at the ceremony. Engie SA has 300MW of renewable energy and 1GW of power plant energy, located in Durban and Gqheberha.
“[We arrived in South Africa] 20 years ago as the first IPP,” said Giroux. “We were on the first Bid Window, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth… of course we faced a lot of challenges during the four years when the programme was stopped… so we had four years of big doubts.”
A fourth announcement of Stage 6 load shedding highlights the urgent need for renewable energy as well as sufficient infrastructure to onboard this power onto the grid. (Photo: iStock)
The programme, considered one of the best in the world, had come to a halt under the leadership of then CEO Brian Molefe and Koko Matshela, former Eskom head of power generation.
Molefe had decided to stop the programme advancing beyond Bid Window 4, claiming that renewable energy had “disappointed” and that its technology would only be reliable in 10 years.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Grim Reippp(er) — undoing the choke-hold on SA’s renewable energy programme”
The decision to do away with the programme while Eskom was being looted under State Capture is partly why South Africa finds itself in an energy crisis, with the country experiencing the worst-ever levels of load shedding this year. DM/OBP
Yet government is part and parcel of the excessive red tape, dragging of feet and BEE requirements imposed on IPPs. Eskom’s loss of skills and consequent high costs of contractors is directly related to ill-conceived BEE policies. Eskom’s demise was ensured during the years of state capture in too many ways to list. Criminal syndicates continuing to run rampant is proportional to the SAP’s inability to even catch a cold. Cost overruns escalates as government and management continues to bend the knee to toxic unions. The ANC is central to all these failures Mr Mantashe; you are a sorry excuse for a government and are fully to blame for the hollow, failing state we live in. You and all your comrades should resign in shame.
Shame is in short supply in the ANC. They will reject your comment with contempt, because contempt for South Africa is in abundant supply in this evil cabal.
What a staggering statement from Mantashe!
Mantashe speaks with firmed tongue….one has to wonder why?
Should be forked tongue not firmed tongue!
I suspect his statements are a ploy to ultimately blame Mr de Ruyter for Eskoms woes! Does he think we’ve all been sleeping?
Mantashe needs to go for a medical check up that includes a cognitive function test. His ravings are becoming increasingly unhinged.
Hear, hear!
This minister is so out of touch with reality. He seems to be in his own little cocoon! It’s a pity he doesn’t stay in there and keep out of the way of people fixing the problems!
He again demonstrated that he is a useless moron. He benefited from corruption, has prevented, for many years, alternative power generation and is a leading member of the ANC, the party responsible for state capture.
‘Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state,’
Let’s break this down (winced as I wrote that, given the state of Eskom and Jo’burg’s ANC delivered road infrastructure that’s washed away overnight):
1) 1998/9 the White Paper on energy said that by 2007 we’d run out of excess capacity. Thabo Mbeki’s ANC government did nothing to bring new capacity on board.
2) Since then, we’ve also known that the bulk of the existing coal fleet would need to be retired now and over the next 15 years. Thabo Mbkei and Jacob Zuma’s ANC government did nothing to bring sufficient, working new capacity on board.
3) Belatedly and grudgingly the REIPPP was introduced – a great programme, globally admired – except that knowing that the bulk of solar and wind power would be delivered from the west and south of the country, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC government did nothing to build additional transmission capacity.
Gwede Mantashe has been in this post since 2019 and has not done a single thing of (positive) consequence for South Africa. If there is an attempt to overthrow the state, it is from within, with this puerile, toxic luddite leading from the front.
It’s not correct that Thabo Mbeki’s government did nothing to bring new capacity on board; the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme was meant to do exactly that but was sadly abandoned by the Zuma administration.
The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor programme was nowhere near ready for implementation by 2007. The white paper from the 1990s clearly identified this year as being when we would run into supply constraints. A nuclear build takes at least a decade. Even if all the technical problems with the design had been ironed out by 2010 (which they weren’t), we would STILL likely be facing the same constraints today.
The PBMR was hubris, not a solution. It amounted to Mbeki’s government doing nothing but dream.
“We are from the period of State Capture, but load shedding is becoming worse than State Capture,” said Mantashe …
“Any other government can be overthrown for this level of load shedding. Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state”
Corrupt (according to evidence before the Zondo commission) anc chair gwede neglects to mention that decades of anc abuse of Eskom’s power generating units, running them hard without the so essential attending to required maintenance and repairs are main causes of Eskom’s failures.
When a car has been run hard for decades without essential maintenance, it is futile to expect it to be resurrected in two years, if at all. Modern power generating assets are much more complex than automobiles, and without timely and proper attention to steam leakages and other issues — as happened during extended anc abuse — irreversible damage is caused.
It is absurd to blame current Eskom management for abuse by their predecessors.
And gwede himself has repeatedly blocked affordable new generating capacity in favour of unaffordable powerships.
And then says “… load shedding is urgent; it must be attended to sooner than later.”
What an absolute moron! He is the biggest reason for later than sooner.
‘Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state,’ Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said” and “However, with grid capacity constraints, the additional power becomes futile, particularly when the programme is still facing bottlenecks with the Independent Power Producers’ office waiting for exemptions from National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry. ”
So how Mr Mantashe does the blame lie with Eskom??
You and your government are a bunch of incompetent hypocrites and liars! I am astounded that you have the gall to blame Eskom for this? You place every roadblock you can dream up in front of any addition to the grid because you know that once we move to renewables you and your cadres in the ANC will be unable to steal!
Does anyone really believe that the current management of Eskom would deliberately delay the production of electricity? Instead of commending De Ruyter and his team for their tireless work and rather allocating badly needed capital, you blame them for the sorry state of affairs. You are the chief hypocrite! GO AWAY!
This minister is the one who refused renewal projects as far back as I can remember. Now he talks about Eskom as if some aliens were running it, and not his ANC cadres that have destroyed a once award winning power supplier.
“Not attending to loadshedding.” What a thing to say. Andre de Ruyter and his team have been sweating blood to keep the lights on, with little apparent help from the government, and this is the thanks they get?
This government could help by passing a law criminalising the sabotage of essential national assets, and then vigorously pursuing the perpetrators. As it is the saboteurs and thieves seem to draw no attention from government. Minister Mantashe would do far better to thump the compromised ANC cadres. Or is that a difficult thing to do? Could it be that the Minister is covering his own backside?
How can this happen? I quote: “However, with grid capacity constraints, the additional power becomes futile, particularly when the programme is still facing bottlenecks with the Independent Power Producers’ office waiting for exemptions from National Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry.” What exemptions is the programme (and the IPP) waiting for? Whatever they are the Treasury and the DTI should be standing ready to grant them. Also, what are these grid capacity constraints? And why? There are far too many unanswered questions.
What’s the problem with overthrowing the state? There’s nothing to overthrow Gwede…
I’m in.
I think we are all in on this If we base our conversation on the informed assumption that the ANC does not differentiate between the ANC and the State, Mr Mantashe is correct that Eskom is one of the key factors that will result in the overthrow of the State.
The bit that he is not stating well, is that Eskom is not the only failure of the ANC/State that will lead to the overthrow of the ANC/State. Point a finger in any direction where there is an SOE or public money involved and you will see agitation.
gm should just keep his anc mouth quiet and allow the Eskom management to get on without any anc interference. First thing that needs to be done is to get rid of at least half of the people on the payroll. (They can’t be called ‘employees’ as that would imply that they may sometimes do work) Secondly SAPS (Another anc useless minister) should do their work and arrest the sabotaging thieves running the procurement show. The cause of our electricity mess is the anc and only the anc, who were warned about this exact situation way back in 1998 already. (Thanks Thabo!!)
I read the article and decided to answer as the person making these statements is either non compos mentis or under the influence of prohibited substances. Then I realise it is futile. The ANC has no shame and sense of guilt. They will keep on plundering the country’s resources until a miracle occurs and they are removed from power.
This kind of inflammatory rhetoric from a political dinosaur would be laughable if it wasn’t so damned cynical. Not mentioning the ANC cadres, the unions and the culture of theft and corruption they installed in the SOE will not whitewash the ANC. Take responsibility for your mess ffs, and stop blaming everyone else!
This man has no shame @ all, Loadshedding worse than STATE CAPTURE. He is insane, corruption, mismanagement @ SOEs especially Eskom is part of state capture which ledPoliticians lying once again. There is a lot of African Engineers educated @ top Universities here n abroad. Overlooked bcos they are not politically aligned. BEE shouldn’t be used as a scapegoat for government failure. Some White Engineers resigned and set up small companies which charged ESKOM an arm and leg for their services. BEE is here to stay.
The elephant in the room is nuclear power. The ANC still has a strong leaning towards nuclear energy. It is strongly suspected, (and according to ANC history, likely) that the nuclear deal with Russia offered large kickbacks to the ever-connected, including GM. This is what is causing the shift to renewables to stutter along in the hope that the nuclear option becomes more urgent. I personally have nothing against nuclear in principle, but high cost together with the long construction phase make it a poor starter to get past our coal woes. Cost to consumer of nuclear is estimated variously between 2 – 6 times that of renewables. Renewables will also create jobs to off-set those lost with coal-plant closures. Result: Get the fastest available electricity option going as fast as possible – renewables are also the cheapest.
Surely Gwede Mantashe is skating on thin ice. Carl Niehaus has been expelled for bringing the ANC into disrepute. I suggest that Gwede Mantashe is doing the same thing. His ridiculous statement that Eskom’s implementation of Stage 6 load shedding was “akin to agitating for the overthrow of the state” demonstrates not just his total lack of understanding of why load shedding is necessary but was clearly used to try to deflect attention away from the DMRE which is solely responsible to ensure South Africa has sufficient electricity generating capacity to make the ANC’s lofty National Development Plan possible. Eskom does not have the authority to procure additional power. That’s the minister’s job. Since 2020, Eskom has been asking the DMRE for additional generating capacity so that Eskom would be able to shut down and make proper repairs to ageing, unreliable equipment, thereby addressing the root cause of load shedding. For a while, de Ruyter’s request was ignored. Then Mantashe instituted the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme in an effort to end load shedding. By so doing, he tacitly acknowledged that de Ruyter was right – more power generation capacity was needed. … Part two continues…
Part two — But when the minister chose to award the lion’s share of the RMIPPPP to a powership company, he found it was unable to provide the additional power because it couldn’t get permission to park the powerships in South African harbours, thereby making the RMIPPPP a failure. So what does the minister do? He chooses to propagate blatant untruths about Eskom by saying that the power utility has 20 000 MW of generating capacity “lying idle”. Well if that was true – which of course we all know isn’t – why did he go to the trouble of setting up the RMIPPPP? Load shedding has cost thousands – probably hundreds of thousands of job-losses. That problem should keep him up at night trying find solutions. Instead, he chooses to spread false information and pass the blame. It really is time for the old man to retire. South Africa needs a young, well-educated person to head up the energy ministry. Someone who understands that South Africa needs reliable, affordable electricity now to make the economy grow and enable the wonderful goals of the NDP. That person needs to be a visionary who looks forward, and who is not lost in the indoctrination of a system that doesn’t work and could never produce peace and prosperity for all. After all, isn’t the ANC’s primary goal to provide “a better life for all”?