Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has announced the procurement of nuclear power of 2.,500MW to ease load shedding.
However, the plant is expected to come on stream by 2032 or 2033, but work will need to begin now.
Ramokgopa said the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has given them the go-ahead for the project after the legal and regulatory requirements were met.
This is part of the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 plan, which had called for the procurement of 2,500MW of nuclear power to ensure energy security for the country.
This is to avoid the situation of the late 1990s when government was warned about the impending crisis at Eskom, but nothing happened.
This led to load shedding in 2008 and the country has not be able to fix the crisis since then, with 2023 having just 11 days with no load shedding at all.
Medupi and Kusile power plants are behind schedule, plagued by various problems and delays.
Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe announced in his budget speech in Parliament early this year that they will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a nuclear power plant by March 2024.
Ramokgopa, who was briefing the media on Tuesday, said work will have to begin now after all the requirements were met.
However, he said nuclear was the cheapest form of energy.
“The cost of generation. I want to compute what is the cost of putting up a cost of that nature. What is the typical tariff for new build in relation to the various technologies as I speak to you.
“For PV (photovoltaics), the cost of generation is 50 cents per kilowatt hour. We know that a number of them had serious problems in getting to financial close. When you look at concentrated solar power, it’s about R1.35 per kilowatt hour, when you look at wind, it’s about 87c per kilowatt hour, when you look at Open Gas Cycle Turbines, this is diesel, the most expensive, you are talking about R5.80. When you are talking nuclear, you are talking 60c,” said Ramokgopa.
He said what this meant was that they were now triggering a procurement process for the nuclear power plant.
The case for building a nuclear power plant was compelling, given Eskom’s energy crisis.
There was a thorough process that was followed by Nersa in giving the green light to the project.
“Essentially what Nersa said was that we are giving you the go-ahead to proceed,” said Ramokgopa.
He described this as a milestone.
Deputy Director-General in the Department of Energy, Zizamele Mbambo said the process that was undertaken was very rigorous.
He said he will not discuss details on what would be contained in the RFP when it is issued.
But the process began in 2020 when the department issued a request for Information to various nuclear companies.
“In 2020 the department went on a Request for Information (RFI). It was a non-binding Request for Information for the different nuclear vendors to demonstrate to South Africa as to how they would implement the project of this magnitude,” said Mbambo.
The RFI came out with information regarding conventional nuclear plans, pressurised water reactors and small modular reactors.
But the department has not yet decided on the shape and format the RFP will take.
“When do we anticipate this project to be commissioned? Based on our assessment as a team having done the Request for Information as I alluded to, we found that the ideal time by which we start commissioning the first unit of this 2,500MW is around 2032 or 2033,” he said.
“Remember, here we are dealing with a long-term project, which requires that you start early that you are optimising on time and be able to commission the project well in time. The nuclear project takes about 10 to 12 years to be able to commission the nuclear power plant to the grid. We are looking at the horizon around 2032 or 2033 to commission the first unit of the power plant.
“We must start now with the work. In terms of the contracting, we have not yet decided the model that will be adopted on the nuclear new build. It is prescribed that must follow an open prescript and not a country-to-country arrangement,” said Mbambo.
Mantashe had already said early this year the RFP will be released to the market by March next year.
Mantashe already announced in his budget speech that by March 2024 they will release the Request for Proposal to the market.
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