TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

      12 August 2022

      Actually, solar users should pay more to access the grid – here’s why

      12 August 2022

      Fixing SA’s power crisis is not complex: it simply takes the will to do better

      12 August 2022

      Telkom says MTN talks remain on track

      12 August 2022

      Analysis | Rain muddies the waters with approach to Telkom

      11 August 2022
    • World

      Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

      12 August 2022

      Huawei just booked its first sales rise since US blacklisting

      12 August 2022

      Apple remains upbeat about iPhone sales even as Android world suffers

      12 August 2022

      Ether at two-month high as upgrade to blockchain passes major test

      12 August 2022

      Gaming industry’s fortunes fade as pandemic ends

      11 August 2022
    • In-depth

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Energy»Jo’burg to get first gas-fired power plants

    Jo’burg to get first gas-fired power plants

    Energy By Agency Staff4 February 2021
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Johannesburg skyline. Clodagh Da Paixao/Unsplash.com

    Harith General Partners, which funds infrastructure development across Africa, is pushing ahead with plans to build the first gas-fired power plants in South Africa’s industrial hub of Gauteng and is exploring options to source the fuel.

    The fund manager wants to build two gas-fired plants at the site of its coal-fired Kelvin Power Station, which lies east of Johannesburg close to the city’s main airport. The government’s energy blueprint, known as the Integrated Resource Plan, includes proposals to bring gas to the region from 2023 at the earliest, and that target isn’t ambitious enough, according to Sipho Makhubela, Harith’s CEO.

    “It’s further out than we would desire. We are working on shortening that time frame because we can’t wait that long,” he said in an interview last week. “The bottlenecks are holding us back.”

    South Africa has suffered intermittent power outages since 2008 because of inadequate generation capacity…

    South Africa has suffered intermittent power outages since 2008 because of inadequate generation capacity and the poor state of some plants owned by Eskom.

    The country is also almost entirely dependent on electricity generated from coal and is under pressure to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Gas, while a fossil fuel, is less harmful to the environment than coal. The new plants could jointly produce between 450MW and 700MW of power, depending on the technology used, Makhubela said.

    “The economy needs security of supply, especially base-load supply,” he said in reference to power that’s accessible around the clock. “This would be base-load supply.”

    Kelvin site

    A first gas plant that’s 60% owned by Harith and 40% held by the Public Investment Corp, which manages state workers’ pensions, could be built on the site of an idle Kelvin unit. The second plant could then be constructed on another site once a power purchase agreement is concluded between Kelvin and the City of Johannesburg, he said.

    Harith is considering bringing in liquefied natural gas by road or rail, or buying gas from Sasol to fuel its new plants.

    Elsewhere on the continent, Harith expects to conclude a road deal in East Africa soon, a port project in West Africa, rail deals in Southern Africa and expand its telecommunications interests, Makhubela said. Still, energy remains a key focus. “The energy pipeline never stops running,” he said.  — Reported by Antony Sguazzin, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP

    Eskom Harith Harith General Partners Sipho Makhubela top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleElon Musk tweet sends dogecoin soaring 50%
    Next Article Gijima gets regulatory nod for T-Systems acquisition

    Related Posts

    Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

    12 August 2022

    Huawei just booked its first sales rise since US blacklisting

    12 August 2022

    Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

    12 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Get your brand in front of TechCentral’s amazing audience

    12 August 2022

    Pricing Beyond CMYK: printers answer the FAQs

    11 August 2022

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.