The Coega industrial development zone may be able to generate almost all its massive electricity needs if negotiations around a unique R2-billion gas-driven power plant come off.

Siting a pebble-bed modular nuclear reactor in the Coega IDZ or nearby as a possible power source for it, has also not been ruled out.

The Coega Development Corporation said yesterday a joint venture between local and foreign investors in the gas-driven power plant was currently under negotiation and could see liquid natural gas delivered to the IDZ by sea from West Africa.

The plant could produce 1 600 megawatts initially and later 3 200MW.
This would meet most of the 3 500MW needed by the first 6 500-hectare phase of the IDZ that is ready for investors now, including the power-hungry aluminum smelter, and make the IDZ less reliant on the already strained national grid.

When all 11 000 ha of the zone has been developed, the complex of factories, offices and warehouses is expected to consume 4 000MW of power – more than eight times that currently used by the metro.

Eskom has admitted that its capacity is near its limits and that current power generation infrastructure will be insufficient for the country’s needs by 2007.

For this reason it is aggressively looking at alternative sources of power, including the nuclear option.

Senior technical specialist Peter Inman said the Eastern Cape’s dependence on a single power line from Witbank via Cape Town made industries in the Coega IDZ extremely vulnerable to disruption. “All it needs is one little accident and the whole of the Eastern Cape is shut down,” he said.

CDC executive manager (infrastructure development) Kelly Byrne said an environmental impact assessment on the gas plant would begin in the second quarter of 2005.