Karpowership back on agenda

Re-emergence of possible deal horrifies experts and environmentalists

● The controversial 20-year Karpowership deal — stalled and mired in legal battles — is back on the table as a “quick fix” to the energy crisis, drawing the wrath of energy and environmental experts.

“A self-created crisis” designed to bypass procurement processes, a “complete sh*t show”, an “irrational decision”, and potentially “national suicide” are some of the terms used by those warning against it.

This week mineral resources & energy minister Gwede Mantashe told an ANC Energy Dialogue gathering that cutting the proposed contract period with Karpowership from 20 years to 10 could help the government procure energy urgently from the floating power stations.

The Karpowership deal is an attempt to procure 1,220MW of emergency power in which the Turkish company would be contracted to deploy plants that produce electricity from ship-mounted generators.

An earlier agreement Karpowership secured as part of a 2021 emergency tender for 2,000MW ground to a halt amid complaints about the duration of the contract. It was backed by the department of mineral resources & energy but rejected by the department of environment, forestry & fisheries (DFFE).

DFFE spokesperson Albi Modise told the Sunday Times the department received a new environmental impact assessment (EIA) for consideration from Karpowership on January 9, and a decision on the deal would be made by March 7. But energy expert Clyde Mallinson warned that a lot more information was needed, and many questions should be asked by South Africans before allowing a deal he described as “terrible” and “a complete sh*t show”, with better options more immediately available.

“The so-called emergency risk mitigation programme was drawn up three years ago in response to stage 6 load-shedding in December

2019. And not one single kilowatt hour has been added to the grid as part of that programme. If that’s emergency procurement, heaven help us,” Mallinson said, describing the terms of the programme as “like throwing sand into a gearbox — it’s blocked everything”.

Mallinson believes a more intelligent solution lies in salvaging renewables projects and removing stumbling blocks that are preventing suppliers from delivering the same amount of power more quickly and cheaply than Karpowership.

“The current documents prevent suppliers from communicating with each other, sharing resources and interacting with the grid,” he said. “So now you could have winds blowing at night, and that company has to curtail things because they have no storage capacity. But a nearby solar facility has passed on its energy and is sitting with empty batteries, but is not allowed to take excess from the wind guys because of an irrational decision that bars them from talking.”

Other issues that need to be interrogated, he said, included the set contract period, the pricing of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and how this would be paid, and the availability of floating re-gasification units. There are a limited number of ships on the planet able to transport LNG to Karpowership vessels, so bookings could take years to be delivered.

“Plus to have three power ships standing in our ports for 20 years is utterly unpalatable,” said Mallinson.

Scientist and strategic adviser Anthony Turton was also scathing when asked about the Karpowership deal, describing shortages as a problem that won’t go away.

“The fundamental problem is capacity generation. That power must be fed into a high-voltage transmission line somewhere, and that simply doesn’t exist. So not only is it a question of generation but how do you connect it into the grid. That requires some massive engineering and is no trivial thing,” he said.

He also questioned the shortening of the contract term, concerned that this would inflate the price.

“For this to be pushed forward, somebody in the system is benefiting, and the Special Investigating Unit should be called in because in this country, the bigger the crisis, the bigger the payoff. The ANC is not interested in doing what is best for the people,” Turton said. “It’s ... a self-created crisis that will amount to national suicide if they go through with it.”

Melissa Fourie, executive director of the Centre for Environmental Rights — one of the groups opposing the Karpowership deal in court — said they were against the deal because it exposed South Africa to huge risks and served only to distract from real solutions to load-shedding.

A shortened contract period, she said, would serve only to drive costs above that of renewables and created an inherent moral hazard by providing an incentive for involved parties to extend the contract through all means possible.

Local economics research institute Meridian Economics concluded that the Karpowership deal is not required to meet South Africa’s load-shedding problems on an urgent basis, and “faster and substantially cheaper options are available to complement the existing generation resources on the grid to eliminate load-shedding in the short term”.

“These power ships pose significant risks to the direct environment, risks that are set out in detail in objections lodged in the EIA processes. Local fishers, who rely on fish stocks for their food and livelihoods, have been particularly vocal in their opposition,” Fourie said. “If authorised, the Karpowership projects would emit an irreversible amount of potent methane greenhouse gas.”

Karpowership did not respond to the Sunday Times’s request for comment.

It’s ... a selfcreated crisis that will amount to national suicide if they go through with it

Anthony Turton, scientist