Fears that State-owned Eskom’s protracted delay in concluding power purchase agreements (PPAs) with selected independent power producers (IPPs) could result in job losses and the idling of projects, are emerging, as DCD Wind Towers starts cutting jobs.
The R536-million DCD Wind Towers venture, based in the Coega Industrial Development Zone, in Port Elizabeth, has laid off almost 30 workers and placed 140 staff on short-time, DCD Group CEO Digby Glover said in a statement on Friday.
“DCD Wind Towers has already begun shedding jobs and is likely to close completely in April if Eskom refuses to act,” he said. DCD Wind Towers was established in 2013 with millions of rands in investment from the Industrial Development Corporation and the Coega Development Corporation.
Glover added that the project had order commitments in place awaiting only the project authorisations from Eskom.
However, Eskom has, to wide criticism, refused to sign PPAs with 37 IPPs selected under government's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), with Engineering News reporting recently that Eskom says it will procure renewable energy "at a pace and scale that we can afford".
The acclaimed REIPPPP has attracted almost R200-billion in private investment and is expected to grow to around R400-billion as the programme continues.
“We are dismayed by Eskom’s defiance of government policy on renewable energy. Many stakeholders have already made representations to Parliament on this issue, so it has been clear for some time what the implications of Eskom’s delay would be – and now it is happening,” said Glover.
Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown is planning to meet with Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and representatives from Eskom to discussion potential solutions to the standoff over signing the PPAs.