Name of the Project
Khanyisa coal independent power producer programme (CIPPP).

Location
Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
The project is being undertaken by the ACWA Power, together with Hulisani; Thebe Investments; Pele Natural Energy; Mazi Capital; and Palace Group.

Project Description
Khanyisa is part of the first round of the CIPPP. The CIPPP is the first baseload energy programme in South Africa that enables the private sector to provide coal-generated energy.

The project involves the construction of a 306 MW coal-fired power plant using circulating fluidised-bed technology.

The plant will use the discard coal abundantly available as waste piles at the nearby Anglo American collieries, thereby significantly reducing the environmental impact of the waste on the surrounding region.

It will also eliminate the need for and the consequences of mining new coal seams.

The Khanyisa power plant is designed as a zero-liquid-effluent discharge plant to further minimise the impact on the environment.

The water used at the power plant will be reclaimed from underground mine operations in combination with a dry-cooled power plant configuration, which will minimise water consumption and negate the need to consume precious local water resources.

Khanyisa was selected in the first round of the then Department of Energy’s Coal Baseload Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme in October 2016.

Potential Job Creation
The project will create between 300 job at its peak and about 150 jobs during operation.

Capital Expenditure
R1.03-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
The plant was supposed to be completed in December 2020.

Latest Developments
A high court ruling has declared that environmental approval for the planned Khanyisa coal-fired power station has expired.

The ruling is a result of a legal challenge launched in 2017 by environmental justice group groundWork, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights. The organisation sought to set aside the environmental approval for the plant on the basis that ACWA Power failed to adequately assess the project’s climate change impacts and that the then Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, the late Edna Molewa, failed to consider such impacts before approving the project. 

Pressure from environmental groups has also led South Africa’s biggest banks, Standard Bank, FirstRand, Nedbank and Absa, to agree to withdraw from funding Khanyisa and Thabametsi – another proposed coal-fired plant, which was cancelled by its developers – Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) – in December 2020.

Despite the hurdles these projects have encountered, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has said that he will release a tender for 1 500 MW of new coal-fired capacity in 2021 as provided for in the Integrated Resource Plan 2019.

Khanyisa’s water use licence was also set aside by the Water Tribunal in July 2020 for failure to conduct adequate public participation. Without a valid environmental authorisation or a water use licence, ACWA cannot legally start building the power plant.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
General Electric (engineering, procurement and construction); and Nomac and Palace Group (operation and maintenance).

Contact Details for Project Information
ACWA Power tel +27 11 722 4100 or fax +27 11 722 4113.
Hulisani, tel +27 87 806 2425 or email info@hulisani.co.za.