Harare — Karpowership will continue its efforts to win environmental approval for the installation of two ship-mounted power plants in South African ports, Bloomberg reports.
According to a decision reviewed by Bloomberg, South African Environment Minister Barbara Creecy rejected appeals from five environmental organizations that attempted to prevent the firm from requesting permission to erect a 450 megawatt gas-fired facility at the port of Richards Bay on the northeast coast.
In a separate judgment, she permitted Karpowership to seek environmental approval at Saldanha on the west coast, overturning her department’s earlier decision to reject authorization for a 320-megawatt operation.
The decisions mark the most recent development in a tale that has seen the Turkish company’s projects continually postponed due to legal issues and environmental obstacles. This, according to Bloomberg, will help the government’s efforts to increase electricity generation in the face of ongoing blackouts that are stunting economic growth.
Since winning nearly 60% of a state tender in March 2021 for 2,000 megawatts of emergency electricity to address the crisis, Karpowership has been working on three projects, accoridng to Bloomberg. However, a disagreement over the positioning of the power ship with the national port operator will cause a delay in the 450 megawatt project at the Port of Ngqura. It was stated that the delay in Ngqura might be anywhere between 12 and 18 months as a result of the requirement to locate a new spot in the harbor for the ship to moor.
Karpowership still needs to obtain final environmental approval, sign a power-purchase deal with the country’s largest power company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., and extend its access to the national grid before the end of this month. Since 2010, Karpowership, a Turkish power producing firm, has been using off-shore ships as floating gas power plants. The company contracts to provide countries with power extends up to 20 years. With South Africa looking to Kapowership to assist with its load shedding crisis, concerns have been raised at the cost and the length of time of the contracts, as well as its impact on the environment.
According to Rudi Dicks, head of the project management office in the Presidency and member of the National Energy Crisis Committee, the government is discussing the possibility of reducing the term for Karpowership contracts as an “emergency’ measure”. Dicks called for contracts of potentially five to ten years would be preferable to the initial term of 20 years. This follows a comment by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa who recently said that contracts with emergency power producers should not last longer than three to five years.
The Karpowership deal is aimed to lessen the impact of load shedding on the country which has affected the economy, most notably small businesses, with up to 64% of township small businesses stopping operations during scheduled power cuts.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly signalled his support for the controversial Karpowership emergency power deal, saying that was ‘the way to go right now to add those megawatts’.
Karpowership will continue its efforts to win environmental approval for the installation of two ship-mounted power plants in South African ports.
According to a decision reviewed by Bloomberg, South African Environment Minister Barbara Creecy rejected appeals from five environmental organizations that attempted to prevent the firm from requesting permission to erect a 450 megawatt gas-fired facility at the port of Richards Bay on the northeast coast.
In a separate judgment, she permitted Karpowership to seek environmental approval at Saldanha on the west coast, overturning her department’s earlier decision to reject authorization for a 320-megawatt operation.
The decisions mark the most recent development in a tale that has seen the Turkish company’s projects continually postponed due to legal issues and environmental obstacles.
This, according to Bloomberg, will help the government’s efforts to increase electricity generation in the face of ongoing blackouts that are stunting economic growth.
Since winning nearly 60% of a state tender in March 2021 for 2,000 megawatts of emergency electricity to address the crisis, Karpowership has been working on three projects, accoridng to Bloomberg. However, a disagreement over the positioning of the power ship with the national port operator will cause a delay in the 450 megawatt project at the Port of Ngqura.
It was stated that the delay in Ngqura might be anywhere between 12 and 18 months as a result of the requirement to locate a new spot in the harbor for the ship to moor.
Karpowership still needs to obtain final environmental approval, sign a power-purchase deal with the country’s largest power company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., and extend its access to the national grid before the end of this month.
Since 2010, Karpowership, a Turkish power producing firm, has been using off-shore ships as floating gas power plants. The company contracts to provide countries with power extends up to 20 years. With South Africa looking to Kapowership to assist with its load shedding crisis, concerns have been raised at the cost and the length of time of the contracts, as well as its impact on the environment. https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00085898.html
According to Rudi Dicks, head of the project management office in the Presidency and member of the National Energy Crisis Committee, the government is discussing the possibility of reducing the term for Karpowership contracts as an “emergency’ measure”. Dicks called for contracts of potentially five to ten years would be preferable to the initial term of 20 years. This follows a comment by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa who recently said that contracts with emergency power producers should not last longer than three to five years. https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00085898.html
The Karpowership deal is aimed to lessen the impact of load shedding on the country which has affected the economy, most notably small businesses, with up to 64% of township small businesses stopping operations during scheduled power cuts.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signalled his support for the controversial Karpowership emergency power deal, saying that was ‘the way to go right now to add those megawatts’. https://allafrica.com/stories/202305120100.html
