Eight power stations may be built in Waterberg

lephalale, limpopo - there was potential for electricity utility eskom to build eight power stations in the waterberg coalfields over the next 20 years as south africa's energy demand almost doubled, eskom coal specialist johan dempers said yesterday.

the waterberg coalfields were in limpopo and extended into botswana, dempers said, adding that if the eight 4 000 megawatt power stations were built in the region, this could add 120 million tons a year of demand for south africa's coal.

according to kumba resources, the country now uses 103 million tons of coal a year to generate electricity. its annual coal production is 240 million tons, of which 167 million is consumed domestically and 73 million is exported.

dempers said the utility was focusing on the waterberg. more electricity would be generated in the coalfield.

in mid-july eskom announced that it would proceed with the building of a 2 250mw base load power station near lephalale at a cost of r26 billion as part of its r97 billion expansion programme.

according to kumba, the waterberg coalfields have resources of 163.143 billion tons and reserves of 3.54 billion tons.

anglocoal's steve bodon said 40 percent of south africa's remaining coal resources were in the waterberg and the witbank coalfields were declining.

as a result of the expected increase in demand, kumba planned to increase production at its grootegeluk mine near lephalale from an expected 18.5 million tons in 2006 to 45 million tons over the next 15 years, said manager piet nel.



grootegeluk is south africa's largest coal mine. it supplies coal to the matimba power station outside lephalale, mittal steel south africa and other local users.

lephalale's mayor, rosina mogotlane, said the expansions would change the face of the region, which spans the same area as gauteng but has a population of less than 100 000 people.

the mine and power station expansions will create 7 500 jobs during construction.

the population of the lephalale town is expected to grow from 20 000 to 60 000 over the next 10 years.

water affairs and forestry department representative beyers havenga said the department was looking at options to meet strong water demand from lephalale until 2025, because water, which was key to the mine and power station expansions at lephalale, was scarce in limpopo.

water demand at lephalale was expected to grow from 25.5 million cubic metres in 2005 to 63.3 million by 2025.

bodon is exploring the commercial application of coal bed methane in the waterberg area. this was a new technology in africa, but was well established in australia and the us.

spoornet representative deirdre strydom said that to increase exports of coal from the waterberg, the rail utility was looking at shipping coal from lephalale to the richards bay coal terminal, maputo, saldanha or the port of ngqura at coega. thirty million tons of coal could be exported from the waterberg, with could justify the investment by spoornet.