The Khanyisa power project, under development in South Africa, will be the first project of its kind in the region to use the innovative circulating fluidised-bed (CFB) technology. The news was revealed at a workshop promoted by the Fossil Fuel Foundation, attended by the project manager Julian Eslait, who works for the company Anglo American Thermal Coal (AATC).
Indeed, although CFB technology has already been internationally proven, the implementation of this technique is still in its early stages. And then there’s the fact that AATC is also “facing numerous challenges relating to implementing a CFB power project in South Africa”, Eslait adds.
In order to properly proceed with the Khanyisa power project, AATC must first build a 450 MW power generation plant – which will have state of the art technology through three 150 MW CFB boiler units and dry cooling – in the Kleinkopje colliery, in Mpumalanga.
The plant will be fuelled by discard coal provided by AATC and will work as an independent power producer. This was the model chosen because, according to the manager, it aligns in the best way with the group’s strategy.
Initially, the group company Anglo American Platinum (known as Amplats) was going to be the sole offtaker for all the produced electricity, but the level of commitment of their balance sheet was considered inappropriate and the project had to be deferred. At the time, it was decided that the agreement would be shared with a third-party offtaker to avoid the huge financial impact impact on Amplats, this third party is yet to be chosen, states Julian Eslait.
With all these delays, the commercial operations related to the project are only scheduled to begin in 2017. Among many other challenges, the company had to deal with the need of a strategic rationale and also an appropriate structure for the project.
However, now things look good for the Khanyisa power project, which holds many potential benefits for South Africa: a new technology coming to the country is only the beginning. The plan will create 900 to 1,200 direct jobs during its construction period and 100 permanent direct jobs when the project goes into operation. And the best? The project will be environmentally friendly because it’s going to reduce the environmental impact of discard coal dumps.