Name of the Project
Thabametsi independent power producer coal-fired power station project.

Location
The project will be built near Lephalale, in South Africa’s Limpopo province, adjacent to Exxaro’s Grootegeluk coal mine.

Client
Exxaro Resources, in joint venture with Marubeni Corporation (lead developer) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (co-developer).

Project Description
The power project was selected as a preferred bidder in the first bid window of the South African Department of Energy’s Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme in October 2016.

The power plant will produce 557.3 MW (net) of electricity for the national grid from coal supplied by Phase 1 of Exxaro’s Thabametsi mine. The new mine is scheduled to produce its first coal in the second quarter of 2021, in line with the development ramp-up schedule of the power station.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Value
Not stated.

Duration
The power plant is expected to be operational in 2021.

Latest Developments
Civil society organisations opposing the development of new coal-fired power generation capacity in South Africa say they will again approach the courts to challenge the latest environmental authorisation granted for the Thabametsi coal-fired power station project.

In 2016, the project was selected as a preferred bidder following the first bid window of South Africa’s Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

However, in March 2017 the North Gauteng High Court ruled in favour of Earthlife Africa (ELA), which challenged a decision by Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa to reject the organisation’s appeal against the environmental authorisation granted to the power station.

The Department of Environmental Affairs granted the environmental authorisation in the absence of comprehensive assessment of the plant’s climate change impacts.

Following what was dubbed as South Africa’s first climate-change case, Judge John Murphy ordered Molewa to reconsider Thabametsi’s environmental authorisation, with the inclusion of a climate-change impact assessment.

In June 2017, Thabametsi made its final climate-impact assessment available for consideration and comment and, on January 30, 2018, Molewa decided that the Thabametsi environmental authorisation would remain in place.

However, ELA plans to contest the latest authorisation, arguing that the Minister’s approval was primarily based on its being aligned to the Integrated Resource Plan of 2010 (IRP 2010), which is out of date.

ELA, which is supported by other organisations forming part of the Life After Coal campaign, has argued that the approval was made despite the risks relating to greenhouse-gas emissions having been described as “very high” in a peer review of Thabametsi’s climate change-impact assessment.

ELA title? Makoma Lekalakala has said the organisation is “shocked” by the Minister’s decision, which goes against South Africa’s commitment to limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Reliance on the “extremely-outdated” IRP 2010 has been described as “insufficient justification” for the approval.

Centre for Environmental Rights attorney Nicole Loser has argued that the Minister’s decision is neither reasonable nor rational. “In the circumstances, our client, ELA, has no option but to return to court to challenge the Minister’s decision,” Loser said in a statement.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Exxaro executive head: strategy and stakeholder engagement Mzila Mthenjane, tel +27 12 307 4481 or email mzila.mthenjane@exxaro.com.