Eskom, a South African energy monopoly, secured funding to "repower" and "repurpose" the Komati coal power station. The conglomerate secured a concessional funding of $497 million for the project.
The final unit of Komati, which entered into commercial operation in 1961, was shut down in October last year and the site has since become the flagship location for Eskom’s Just Energy Transition (JET) strategy.
Eskom reported that the funding would be used to implement an initial 100 MW solar photovoltaic project, a 150 MW battery energy storage deployment and a 70 MW wind project to repower the site. By 2030, Eskom expects the Komati site to have renewables generation capacity of 370 MW and to have developed a pipeline of further repowering and repurposing opportunities.
Engineering, procurement and construction contractors are expected to be appointed later this year and construction is to be completed in 2026.
Eskom told stakeholders that a key lesson to have emerged already is related to the need to initiate JET projects well before coal decommissioning to limit the disruption that such shutdowns caused to local economies and communities.
Power disruptions in South Africa have become increasingly frequent in the country that holds 80% of the world's platinum group metals reserves. Outages have already led to platinum supply constraints and have put additional pressure on the country's aging and poorly-maintained power grid.
Theodor Lisovoy, Editor in Chief of the European bureau, Rough&Polished
