Eskom’s immediate answer to the country’s electricity shortage is to encourage consumers to reduce their electricity consumption. Agriculture is mandated to reduce its electricity consumption by 5%. Two of the industries that have already reduced their dependence on Eskom power are paper and pulp-making and sugar-producing, while the pork and dairy industries are also investigating alternative energy sources.
Sugar-producer Illovo has been running its sugar-processing factories with its own electricity for many years. “From March to December Illovo runs its factory operations on electricity produced by its own turbines, using bagasse as a fuel source,” said Illovo spokesperson Chris Fitzgerald. “Our maintenance period is from January to the end of February when we only use Eskom power for lights and power tools.” Fitzgerald added that Eskom power only supplements the factories’ electricity needs when the internal supply is unable to meet demand. A R3 billion expansion project, implemented before the countrywide power crisis at Sappi’s Saiccor plant in Durban, will enable the mill to be 70% self-sufficient in its electricity needs. The project is due for completion towards the middle of this year.
Corporate affairs and communications manager at Sappi, André Oberholzer, said that through innovation the company has been minimally affected by the rolling blackouts. Four of Sappi’s bigger mills – Saiccor and Tugela in KwaZulu-Natal, Ngodwana in Nelspruit and Usutu in Swaziland – are mostly self-powered. The Ngodwana mill is 90% self-sufficient. A process in which high-pressure steam is converted to low-pressure steam, using a turbine to generate electricity for the plants’ operations, has Sappi’s South African operations meeting 50% of their 300MW needs.
Commercial pork producers who run pigs in highly specialised animal housing are using up to 1 000ℓ of diesel a day to run their generators. “Pork producers are highly dependent on electrical power, which is used to operate automatic feeders, control ventilation and run feed processing mills,” says Simon Streicher, CEO of the South African Pork Producers’ Organisation. “The technology to use slurry to generate electricity is still highly undeveloped in South Africa, but a slurry processor in Bela-Bela is due to be completed soon and holds much hope for the industry.”
The dairy sector is highly dependent on Eskom power. Managing director of the Milk Producers’ Organisation (MPO), Etienne Terre’Blanche said that in the longer term the MPO is investigating alternatives such as biogas from slurry. “This is an option,” said Terre’Blanche, “but is restrictive in the sense that it won’t meet the full needs of large dairy producers until the technology is fully developed in the country.” He added that dairy farmers are entitled to subsidies from Eskom for using less electricity during peak times. – David Steynberg
