Continental Focus, International Reach

South Africa Considers Power Barges

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

South Africa is considering the use of power barges to help it meet its underperforming power sector. Ompi Aphane, deputy director general for energy planning at the DoE, said the power barges, which would use gas to generate electricity, were just one of 170 proposals sent to the government when it requested ideas for the gas-to-power program.

The power generating barges would dock at ports and supply electricity to the national grid.

“Power barges are a serious option, definitely yes,” Aphane told journalists in parliament. “We would definitely want to see an interim solution in the very short term, in other words within months, because that is very critical to ameliorate the load shedding that we have.”

Aphane said the government was looking at all solutions, including the importation of LNG with the aim of generating an extra 3,000 MW of power to the national installed generating capacity of 42,000 MW.

The government is expected to issue a tender for its gas-to-power project before the end of 2015.


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