JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The South African Minerals Council has watched with concern a social media campaign aimed at halting coal exports through the Richards Bay coal terminal to allegedly ease Eskom’s load reduction. .
“This campaign is not based on any facts and is instead based on wholly false allegations that Eskom’s inability to maintain an adequate supply of electricity in South Africa is allegedly due to the country’s exporting of coal,” the council said in a statement. a statement to weekly mining.
“This is a misdiagnosis of the challenges facing Eskom. Eskom’s low power availability factor, which is the cause of load shedding, is due to almost half of its fleet of coal-fired power plants being out of service due to a large number of breakdowns and planned maintenance. Eskom is not short of coal and continues to receive all the coal it expects from its contracted suppliers,” the council added.
The state power company has 31.8 days of coal stored in its power plants against a required minimum of 20 days, Eskom’s national spokesperson. Sikonathi Mantshantsha Has confirmed. In addition, Eskom continuously receives contracted and expected coal deliveries.
Eskom’s problems, the council said, stemmed primarily from its aging fleet of coal-fired power plants and the frequent breakdowns and unreliability of certain power plants, and had nothing to do with a shortage of coal.
Protagonists in reducing coal exports should instead focus on helping Eskom improve the reliability of the power plant fleet.
Any calls to halt coal exports, the council warned, would result in:
- interrupted mining operations and possible job losses if the interruptions are prolonged;
- uncertainty among international investors;
- damage to the perception of South Africa as a reliable source of basic products;
- legal challenges for coal exporters unable to meet contractual obligations; Y
- reduction of taxes and royalty income flowing to the State.
Eskom, in its Integrated Report 2020/21, indicated that it burned 105 million tons of coal. The utility’s stated intention to phase out 24,100 MW of coal-fired electricity beyond 2030 would reduce Eskom’s demand for coal to less than 50m tonnes/year.
The export market is critical to maintaining jobs in coal mining, which employs 91,000 people, and thousands more employed in rail, road and port logistics jobs. In 2022, South Africa exported R215.5 billion worth of coal.
PRIVATE SECTOR ENERGY PROJECTS
Earlier this month, the council estimated that the private sector in South Africa has a pipeline of 9 GW of energy projects in solar, wind, gas and battery storage.
By accelerating those projects and reducing reliance on Eskom, the power company could, the council said, focus on critical maintenance and necessary renovations at some of its power plants.
The mining industry alone has a pipeline of 7.5 GW of power projects on hold or under development, which have a combined value of over R150 billion, with 3 GW of these projects expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
The mining sector consumes around 14% of Eskom’s total electricity production; Adding smelters and refineries, the mineral sector consumes around 30% of Eskom’s production, therefore Eskom will continue to be a source of baseload electricity supply for the mining industry.
A NEW AUSTRALIAN REQUIREMENT IS EXPECTED
In Australia, meanwhile, new requirements will be unveiled forcing Australian coal companies to reserve 10% of their production exclusively for Australian use, Australian media reported on Friday.
Requirements are being implemented to ensure the state has enough coal to power its power plants.
Currently, some coal mining companies are forced to reserve coal for the state’s energy needs, while others are not, with the New South Wales (NSW) Treasurer matt kean say that this new requirement will help balance this imbalance.
Orders requiring companies to provide a percentage of their production for domestic supply are expected to be issued later this month.
“This carbon cap scheme will see NSW doing our part at the request of the Albanian government to contribute to the national solution of this national problem,” Kean is quoted as saying.
