Decision on using power ships in South Africa coming soon

[BusinessTech]

Decision on using power ships in South Africa coming soon

Ruling on whether or not the power ship deal can proceed expected in the coming months.

 

[Quicks]

Well if that's the case they need to get rid of 60% of Eskom employees as they will no longer BEE needed. This way they also do not need to increase the price of electricity to cover the need for power ships.

 

[Wrath of Khan]

The bigger problem is that it's a 20 year deal.
I mean if they said, ok the ship will provide power for 1-5 years then ok... but 20??? fml that's a joke

 

[wingnut771]

The bigger problem is that it's a 20 year deal.
I mean if they said, ok the ship will provide power for 1-5 years then ok... but 20??? fml that's a joke

Apparently they have to build the ships for us so they want a long contract to make it worthwhile.

 

[Paul_S]

The bigger problem is that it's a 20 year deal.
I mean if they said, ok the ship will provide power for 1-5 years then ok... but 20??? fml that's a joke

20 years with no fixed cost on the price of LNG. That is a huge mistake. At least with coal we have a predicatable cost of supply which is not affected by external factors.
LNG prices are highly volatile like the price of oil.

Can you imagine if we landed in a scenario where it costs R20/kWh to generate power using LNG because of a spike in international LNG prices. Pure madness.

 

[RedViking]

RamaPiggyClownClan gonna enjoy this one.

 

[Spizz]

The bigger problem is that it's a 20 year deal.
I mean if they said, ok the ship will provide power for 1-5 years then ok... but 20??? fml that's a joke

I’m not defending anything here, but 20 years for an IPP is standard everywhere. The electricity they sell is based on not only running costs and maintenance, but construction and infrastructure as well.

 

[Vorastra]

Apparently they have to build the ships for us so they want a long contract to make it worthwhile.

This government seems more interested in giving Turkey business than building power projects here.

 

[etienne_marais]

I wonder what the operational costs vs. profit margin and benefit of businesses being able to operate is on these ships ? The pessimist in me says it will be expensive, like burning diesel is not sustainable ?

 

[Spizz]

I wonder what the operational costs vs. profit margin and benefit of businesses being able to operate is on these ships ? The pessimist in me says it will be expensive, like burning diesel is not sustainable ?

Fuel for these engines is HFO (heavy fuel oil) or natural gas. And there are roughly 75GW of these type of Wartsila engines running and supporting national grids and private enterprises (mines etc) all around the world

 

[Spizz]

This government seems more interested in giving Turkey business than building power projects here.

I worked on competing brick and mortar tenders to these ships which would have been long term assets, produced similar power and also given long term jobs in these areas.

We lost.

 

[RonSwanson]

I wonder what the operational costs vs. profit margin and benefit of businesses being able to operate is on these ships ? The pessimist in me says it will be expensive, like burning diesel is not sustainable ?

One thing is sure: Gwede is getting a huge kickback. He has rabidly supported this since inception, and is deliberately delaying everything else.

 

[MagNorthDigital]

I wonder what the operational costs vs. profit margin and benefit of businesses being able to operate is on these ships ? The pessimist in me says it will be expensive, like burning diesel is not sustainable ?

Diesel is expensive, sure, but see post #5 for a not so unrealistic scenario. It's all about the cost per kw/h and Gov is angling for the same deal they have on fuel in ZA.

The real reason this thing got rejected was they want kickbacks per KW, not kickbacks per deal. Karpower must have been gobsmacked when they saw "the South African numbers" hence their response.

And 3.5 million taxpayers is paying for ALL of it.

Oh, and remember, this WILL NOT solve load shedding. This will only drop if by a level of two.

 

[W@P]

The mans gonna have to do something about that fscking belly if he's to drive his new G-Wagons he gonna get from this deal.

 

[InvisibleJim]

I worked on competing brick and mortar tenders to these ships which would have been long term assets, produced similar power and also given long term jobs in these areas.

We lost.

Right before I saw this post, I was wondering about this!

If they have to build the ships for us anyway, why can't we rather invest in the same capacity onshore that could revert to becoming peak load or emergency capacity as new power stations come back on line.

With Kapowership it sounds like we would be funding an assest that they could take and re-deploy elsewhere after 20 years. I suppose that doesn't make it wrong necessarily but it's like leasing anything - you pay less up front but it's more expensive overall. (I suppose the same could be true of an onshore project if the contract was structured in the same way.)

 

[Spizz]

Right before I saw this post, I was wondering about this!

If they have to build the ships for us anyway, why can't we rather invest in the same capacity onshore that could revert to becoming peak load or emergency capacity as new power stations come back on line.

With Kapowership it sounds like we would be funding an assest that they could take and re-deploy elsewhere after 20 years. I suppose that doesn't make it wrong necessarily but it's like leasing anything - you pay less up front but it's more expensive overall. (I suppose the same could be true of an onshore project if the contract was structured in the same way.)

The tenders released by the government were part of an emergency program for IPPs to supply 2GW of power from any method whatsoever for a period of 20 years. There were plenty of different methods submitted, LNG, LPG, wind, solar, batteries etc.

9 tenders were awarded including the 3 ships which made up about 1.2GW of the total.

 

[Gordon_R]

The tenders released by the government were part of an emergency program for IPPs to supply 2GW of power from any method whatsoever for a period of 20 years. There were plenty of different methods submitted, LNG, LPG, wind, solar, batteries etc.

9 tenders were awarded including the 3 ships which made up about 1.2GW of the total.

The tender process was manipulated guided to achieve a predetermined outcome. Plenty of proof in other threads...

 

[etienne_marais]

 

[neoprema]

I understand why some people want to push back here, but we also can't have our cake, AND eat it, AND want it iced the way we want it.

If we're never happy with solutions, we carry on in darkness. Because the major overhauls we're hoping for are a pipe dream.

 

[Spizz]

The tender process was manipulated guided to achieve a predetermined outcome. Plenty of proof in other threads...

I wouldn’t argue against that.