Johannesburg - Tongaat Hullet is in talks with Eskom and government to co-generate and supply electricity, its senior official told I-Net Bridge.
"We have the ability to co-generate electricity from sugar and start operations, and we have already pre-qualified for Eskom's co-generation pilot project," chief executive officer Peter Staude said in a phone interview.
This comes in the wake of unprecedented power cuts that paralysed the mining industry for a week late last month due to power supplier Eskom's inability to keep up with demand.
Tongaat already supplies 9MW to the national grid while the sugar mills are running during the crushing season, but Staude hinted that the company would not commit to any investment until co-generation agreements were concluded.
Analysts said the company was likely to benefit from the forecast electricity shortages in the next five to seven, but would need a "significant investment in equipment both to produce electricity and to link it into the national grid."
The company has the capacity to produce 209MW from its four local sugar mills and two starch plants, and if all the biomass of the cane and emerging technologies were used, it could increase to about 600MW, it said.