Kuyasa Mining subsidiary KiPower continues to advance preparations for the construction of a 600 MW power plant some 20 km south-east of Delmas, in Mpumalanga, announcing on Thursday that the draft reports on the project’s environmental-impact assessment, waste management licence application and atmospheric emissions licence application would become available for public viewing on February 7.
The draft reports would contain studies undertaken by various specialists, the integrations of the findings and an environmental management programme, which would prescribe how the proposed project should be managed before, during and after its proposed construction.
The coal-fired power plant, which would procure coal from the nearby Delmas coal mine, aimed to supply a portion of the 42.6 GW of electricity that would be required to service the country’s energy needs by 2030.
It may, subject to several further studies and authorisations, be expanded to produce up to 2 000 MW in the long term.
Required infrastructure would include a coal conveyor between the Delmas coal colliery and the plant, a limestone conveyor between the plant and the rail line, a water supply pipeline from an existing Rand Water line, an ash disposal facility and an ash conveyor.
KiPower had targeted production for 2015 and expected the first of the plant’s three units to be operational by 2018.