DURBAN - Poor planning has crippled Durban’s internationally acclaimed green electricity programme, which earns the city revenue of R100 million a year.
The project to harvest methane gas from the Bisasar Road and Mariannhill landfill sites and convert it to electricity was the first of its kind in Africa. However, the plant has not been operating since June last year as a contractor has not been appointed.
The Mariannhill plant was built in 2006 and the Bisasar Road plant was built in 2009 at a cost of R120m. The city benefited by earning credits from Eskom. All the energy produced from the plants was fed into the power utility’s grids and the eThekwini Municipality’s electricity bill was reduced accordingly by Eskom.
A Durban Solid Waste report handed to the municipality’s human settlements and infrastructure committee confirmed that the programme had stalled.
The city said it was unable to secure a service provider to manage the process of converting the gas into electricity, which resulted in a loss of revenue of R15m in the second quarter of the 2018/19 budget.
City spokesperson Mswakhe Mayisela said internal processes led to delays in appointing a contractor, but work started in February to award the contract.
DA councillor Martin Meyer, a member of the committee, said the city was “fudging the lines”.
"‘If the city has appointed a new contractor, they must declare who it is. I have been told someone is only managing the process of burning the methane gas, not converting it into electricity,” said Meyer.
Engineer Lindsay Strachan, who initiated and was the former project manager, said it was a “travesty that the plants had to be halted because of the city’s administrative bungling”.
“Given the current demand for energy in the country, it is a travesty. We are not using something on our doorstep where energy is generated from bacteria-eating refuse. It is the cheapest form of energy we can produce in this country,” he said.
Strachan, who is also the KZN chairman of the Institute of Management of Southern Africa, said when the project was started much of North Coast Road and Durban North used the electricity generated from Bisasar Road.
He said the reduced levels of carbon emissions meant that the city earned carbon credits to sell to other countries or cities so that they could comply with UN standards.
“From the 200 000 carbon credits we generated annually, we could earn about R12m, but we are no longer earning that money.”
Strachan said while the city spent R120m building the plants, “we recovered that amount in the first two years of operating them”.
“We earned about R100m per year from the electricity produced at the plants,” said Strachan, who was part of a consortium that put in a bid to manage the plant.
“We tendered for the work in February 2018 and were told our bid was the lowest, but we have yet to hear from the city."
He said the plants were degrading and it would be a “double whammy” because the city would have to do repair work before it restarted operations.
In response, Mayisela said: “The city is mindful of the risk of having mechanical and electrical components standing in sub-tropical and saturated landfill gas conditions, which will hinder engine operation and electrical supply on re-commissioning. The extent of the delay was unforeseen, but recent re-engagement of service providers has shown that, while there are signs of degradation, the costs are being kept to a minimum and it was practical and safe to do so.”
Of the lost revenue, Mayisela said the electricity supply to the eThekwini grid had been affected. “This would have provided relief during load shedding, but the impact in terms of the plant output is minimal.”