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SEA to assist in electricity grid infrastructure expansion

GRID EXPANSION
A strategic environmental assessment will facilitate the expansion of electricity grid infrastructure in South Africa

GRID EXPANSION A strategic environmental assessment will facilitate the expansion of electricity grid infrastructure in South Africa

Photo by Duane Daws

16th May 2014

By: Mia Breytenbach

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

  

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The national Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is collaborating with State-owned power generation utility Eskom, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to facilitate the expansion of electricity grid infrastructure in South Africa.

“This working partnership is supported by government's commitment to eliminate key infrastructure shortcomings in South Africa through the development of the Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) under the leadership of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee (PICC),” says CSIR project manager for the Electrical Grid Infrastructure (EGI) strategic environmental assessment (SEA) Marshall Mabin.

To promote efficient facilitation, the DEA has appointed the CSIR and the SANBI to undertake an SEA to identify strategic routing corridors to enable the responsible and streamlined expansion of electricity grid infrastructure in support of SIP 10.

A core objective of SIP 10 – concerned with electricity transmission and distribution – is to ensure widespread distribution of electricity throughout South Africa and to catalyse economic development in areas characterised by limited electricity availability.

At the First Expert Reference Group Meeting, held at the CSIR in Pretoria, in February this year, Mabin stated during his presentation on the need for the SEA, that the environmental authorisation process in the current form hampers the efficient and effective expansion of strategic national electrical grid infrastructure.

“Major challenges in the current environmental authorisation process include a lengthy timeline for achieving environmental authorization, owing to the number of sector regulations triggered by the activity (i.e EIA, Water Use Licenses, servitude registration etc.), the cascading nature of authorisations, failure to facilitate strategic planning and investment on a spatial scale, authorisations having a limited validity period, grid extension being directed over single parcels of land resulting in complicated land negotiations and the inability of the environmental authorisation process to assess cumulative impacts,” Mabin noted.

To tackle these challenges, the SEA aims to streamline the environmental assessment process through the identification and pre-assessment of strategic corridors for future electrical grid expansion and to develop an accompanying site specific development protocol informing the level of assessment required on the ground. This process would enable Eskom greater flexibility when undertaking land negotiation; and facilitate upfront infrastructure investment, while also contributing to skills development, he says.

Further, Mabin points out that this collaboration involves “key strategic partners, who are best placed to contribute to the design and implementation of a new environmental authorisation process for electricity grid infrastructure”.
Eskom will provide the necessary technical input to ensure that the new authorisation process results in a more streamlined environmental assessment process, and will provide the CSIR with strategic information on future transmission line requirements, based on future energy supply and demand- balance scenarios.

“Further, the DEA, which has commissioned the research, will play a crucial role in ensuring that any new process is compliant with and supports the requirements of the National Environmental Management Act,” Mabin says, adding that the DEA is also responsible for the implementation of any new authorisation process, such as seeking Cabinet support.

CSIR has been at the forefront of research and implementation in SEA in South Africa for the past 15 years, and was responsible for preparing the first set of national guidelines for SEA, that was published by the then Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2000, he notes.

Meanwhile, SANBI, as the leading government institute for biodiversity research in South Africa, will define environmentally sensitive areas within the transmission corridors according to strict biodiversity criteria and will ultimately inform best-suited routes for transmission roll-out from an environmental perspective, Mabin adds. 

Transmission Grid Expansion
Eskom has identified preliminary corridors for the expansion of the transmission grid, based on future energy supply demand-balance scenarios and the locations of key existing supporting energy infrastructure, such as power stations, transmission lines and substations.

A 50 km buffer will be created on either side of the desired Eskom routes across the country, while five corridors will be considered by the SEA, such as the central, east coast, international import, northern and west coast corridors.

The EGI SEA started in January, and the first steering committee and expert reference group meeting was held in Pretoria in February.

Further, as part of its assessment, the CSIR and the SANBI will undertake negative constraints mapping using available data sets and new inputs from specialists to identify key environmental criteria that should be adhered to when Eskom is planning the precise route of a transmission line within the corridors, Mabin explains.

“A key example of significant environmental criteria that should be adhered to, are protected and conservation areas, important bird and bat areas, endangered vegetation areas and hydrology-sensitive areas, such as wetlands.”

Further, he notes that land use and topography will be considered, while areas susceptible to erosion that do not support transmission line development, as well as forested areas and certain agricultural areas, will be identified.

Moreover, existing infrastructure, such as airports and roads, as well as future planned developments, such as the Square Kilometer Array, will also be considered.

The CSIR will also undertake positive mapping, such as the identification of relevant communities, to steer the location of the corridors in the direction of possible economic and social development opportunities.

“Key national strategic infrastructure development areas, such as the proposed special economic zones, as well as more localised development opportunities identified within municipal integrated development plans and spatial development frameworks, will be considered,” Mabin says.  

The estimated timeframe for the project is 24 months and Mabin expects the corridors to be identified and assessed, with supporting documentation completed and the legal implementation process agreed upon, by the end of 2015, whereafter it will be submitted for Cabinet consideration and consequently gazetted.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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