Pretoria - Eskom has expressed interest in acquiring land parcels adjacent to the City of Tshwane’s Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations for electricity generation by independent power producers.
This was made known by the power utility almost two months after a council report regarding an unsolicited bid proposal by a company called Kratos Consortium was withdrawn by mayor Randall Williams.
The Kratos proposal was meant to generate 800 megawatts of power over the long term at an estimated direct investment of R26 billion by refurbishing the two municipal power stations.
The mayor’s council report on the proposal was withdrawn after he was criticised by opposition parties for allegedly influencing senior municipal officials to endorse the unsolicited bid proposal.
Williams was captured on an audio recording at a workshop meeting telling senior managers that the city’s executive authority makes “executive decisions” and that the administration was duty-bound to implement them whether they “agree or disagree” with them.
This week an investigation by the multi-party coalition government into allegations that Williams meddled in the municipal procurement processes involving the bid vindicated him.
The investigation, however, concluded that Williams had a case to answer for having instructed senior officials to endorse a bid proposal by Kratos.
It would appear, however, that Eskom was also looking at clinching the same deal that would see independent power producers generating electricity on the land around municipal power stations.
The Pretoria News has seen an email dated October 31, penned by Amos Mboweni, general manager of Eskom real estate, addressed to Williams and city manager Johann Mettler regarding the power utility’s programme to introduce the private sector in contributing “towards the electricity crisis that the country is currently experiencing”.
In the email, Mboweni proposed a meeting with the City to share information regarding Eskom’s programme for identifying land parcels for generating renewable energy.
“The City does have two sites that meet the programme – the site in and around Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations,” he wrote.
Tshwane chief of staff Jordan Griffiths told the Pretoria News yesterday that the meeting with members of the independent power producers leasing programme took place on Monday.
“Eskom merely presented the broad goals and concept behind the programme and what their intentions are. Namely, they are identifying strategic land parcels around the country which are optimally placed for leasing to independent power producers in order to increase the generation capacity of the national grid,” Griffiths said.
“Eskom indicated that it had identified land parcels around Pretoria West power station and Rooiwal power station as being sites with strong potential.
“In particular, they indicated that due to the largely agricultural areas in these parts solar power could be one such avenue which could then be plugged into the national grid. Further to that, they acknowledged that gas-powered technologies could also be suitable due to the close vicinity in which major gas pipelines are located to these land parcels,” Griffiths said.
The power utility, he said, also highlighted how it was engaging with independent power producers interested in entering into three-year power sales agreements. “Through these agreements they are discussing how electricity can then be channelled through municipal infrastructure through wheeling agreements. These are the agreements that are signed which pertain to the cost of using the electrical distribution network,” he said.
According to him, the mayor also indicated to Eskom that the City had in fact received a proposal for the potential use of these land parcels from Kratos.
He said the City had already identified that these land parcels held strategic value for energy generation.
“Unfortunately, the public participation lease report that was brought to council to gauge public inputs on this proposal on August 16 had to be withdrawn,” he said.
He hailed the meeting between Eskom and the City as being successful in that “it provided a good opportunity for both organisations to unpack their strategic objectives”. “In particular, in harnessing these strategic land parcels it is important that they are utilised to their full potential not only in terms of power generation but in relation to revenue as well,” said Griffiths.
Asked for comment, Eskom said: “The meeting with the City was within the context of the land leasing programme that Eskom is running on its properties.
“The intention was to share our lessons learnt with the City of Tshwane, given that they also have properties or land in close proximity to existing electricity infrastructure. Eskom does not have any other intention other than just sharing our lessons learnt.”
Pretoria News