The World Bank has approved South Africa’s application for funding to kickstart the Just Energy Transition Project at Komati power station.
Eskom will receive a cash injection of R9 billion to fund the project that will eventually add renewables to South Africa’s energy mix, eNCA news reported this Friday.
The Just Energy Transition Project will convert the decommissioned Komati power station into a renewable energy site providing 150MW of solar and storage batteries as well 70MW of wind energy.
Eskom says shutting down the plant will not have a significant impact on national supply.
While some of the station’s workers will be upskilled, others will lose their jobs.
Eskom is already failing to generate power sufficient for the whole of South Africa. Resultantly, the power utility has in recent years rolled out load-shedding to manage the crisis.
The beleaguered power utility this Friday extended rolling blackouts until Monday saying Stage 1 power cuts will be implemented during the day while Stage 2 will kick in from 4 pm until 5 am.
In July this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the South African government was considering importing electricity from Zambia to meet its power needs.
Zambia recently declared a surplus of 1 156.8 megawatts following the commissioning of four out of five generators at its 750-megawatt Kafue Lower Gorge Power Station.
Zambia is also set to supply Zimbabwe, another southern African country experiencing acute power shortages due to ageing equipment.