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Eskom’s old coal a winner
The Presidential Climate Commission says the decision to delay shutting down South Africa’s coal-fired power plants won’t derail its climate change commitments.
Sunday Times reported that the commission’s executive director, Crispian Olver, said pushing out the decommissioning of the Camden, Hendrina, Grootvlei and Kriel power stations out to 2030 was the right choice.
The commission is expected to publish a report on the decision in the near future, but Olver said the delays won’t violate South Africa’s Nationally Determined Contribution commitments set out in the Paris Agreement.
He acknowledged that it is impossible to decommission coal power stations while the country is experiencing a power crisis.
Moreover, the premature decommissioning of power stations would hurt the economy.
Olver noted that roughly 80% of South Africa’s electricity supply comes from coal, adding that it is a crucial export revenue generator through the iron ore, steel, and aluminium industries.
In May 2024, Eskom approved a plan to keep using at least three coal-fired power stations that were set to be shut down until 2030.
“We’ll continue some of our coal operations that were earmarked for shutting down,” said Eskom CEO Dan Marokane.
“We’ll review that process on shorter time intervals going to 2030, but we’ll place ourselves in a position where we are not made vulnerable by early shutting down of those stations.”
The decision raised concerns about the European Commission’s Just Energy Partnership with South Africa.
France, Germany, the US, the UK, and the European Union have offered $9.3 billion (R175 billion) to help South Africa transition from coal to cleaner energy sources.
According to Eskom group executive for generation Bheki Nxumalo, Eskom is still committed to reducing its emissions.
He said it is critical to continue to use some of the power stations marked for shutdown, adding that workers at these stations will lose focus as their imminent closure looms.
The announcement came two months after energy minister Gwede Mantashe said it would be “very wrong” to shut down coal power stations amid an energy crisis.
He said cleaner energy technologies like solar or wind generation rely on intermittent factors like wind or sunshine, while coal power plants can run 24 hours a day.
“This belief that you can leave coal and move to renewables: there’s a technical mistake, very wrong, it will never work,” said Mantashe.
“Coal is going to be around for a long time; for a longer time than many people expect it will be.”
Eskom’s coal fleet had grown increasingly unreliable in recent years, with generators facing frequent breakdowns that take them offline for extended periods and reducing the power utility’s energy availability factor.
However, the power utility has staged a miraculous turnaround over the past 18 months, with Eskom drastically improving its energy availability factor in the past 3–4 months.
Load-shedding has also been suspended for 67 consecutive days.
Eskom’s unplanned capacity loss factor (breakdowns) had been on a worsening trajectory for several years, but has improved to its lowest level since 2021 this year.
Huge uptake of rooftop solar has also taken strain off Eskom’s capacity during the day, while homes with batteries also help reduce demand during the evening peak.
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