by Roger Lilley. Energize
According to a report from Bloomberg, the South African government has granted Karpowership, the Turkish company seeking to supply the country with electricity from ship-mounted power plants, permission to moor at three of the country’s harbours.
Apparently, the Department of Transport granted access to the ports in February. This was, however, kept from the public. The approval surmounted one hurdle the company needs to clear to install its gas-fired plants, after winning three-fifths of a tender for the supply of emergency power in 2021. Transnet National Ports Authority wants to use one of the mooring sites - a location known as A100 at the southern Port of Ngqura - for a liquid bulk terminal it’s relocating from the nearby city of Gqeberha.
Despite South Africa's urgent need for at least 4000 MW of additional generating capacity to reduce the severity of load shedding the country is experiencing, not everyone is happy about using powerships.
Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe favors using the vessel-mounted plants and has the support of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, who told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Thursday that Mantashe should be given carte-blanche to procure new capacity. “It is a cabinet decision that Mantashe has got to find electricity for the country,” Godongwana said. “On what emergency measures he does, we give him the flexibility to do that. If you ask me, I am fully behind that decision.”
But will all due respect to Godongwana, giving Mantashe "carte blanche" would be a mistake. His family's direct involvement with Karpowership makes his choice of this company a conflict of interest. That alone should prevent this option from being considered. But besides that, the amount of power these ships will actually supply is likely to be less than a quarter of the minimum amount needed and will cost far more than renewable power would cost, per MWh. The cost of fuel would be excessive - especially since our currency is so weak against the dollar.
In addition, while independent producers create thousands of jobs, no jobs will be created by Karpowership. And, the powerships will add to the country's air pollution problem - which solar and wind plants do not. If Mantashe had been serious about ending load shedding, and was insistent about using gas, he would have contracted the local IPP which offered gas-fired power to the government at lower costs than Karpowership's quote in 2021.
If we do have to have powerships, they should be here on a far shorter contract. Just long enough for us to build more solar and wind plants and convert some of our old, unreliable coal-fired power stations to gas or some other reliable technology - and that would not take 20 years.
Contracting Karpowership to supply a few hundred MW of power, while clogging up our ports and polluting our waters and air is both irrational and irresponsible. And signing a 20-year contract with this company would be total madness.
