Eskom nuclear plans attract interest

21 May 2017



Eskom aims to publish its request for proposals (RFP) for new nuclear plants by mid-2017, according to Eskom chief nuclear officer, David Nicholls, in an interview with Chris Yelland of EE Publishers. Eskom will then negotiate with the vendors, one at a time, to choose a preferred vendor, and move into discussions about localisation.


Eskom aims to publish its request for proposals (RFP) for new nuclear plants by mid-2017, according to Eskom chief nuclear officer, David Nicholls, in an interview with Chris Yelland of EE Publishers. Eskom will then negotiate with the vendors, one at a time, to choose a preferred vendor, and move into discussions about localisation.

In December 2016, following its designation as nuclear capacity procuring agent in place of the Department of Energy (DOE), Eskom issued, in preparation for the RFP, an initial request for information (RFI) on nuclear project capabilities, costs, financing and localisation, etc, with information to be received by the end of April. The RFI received an enthusiastic response from nuclear vendors worldwide.

Eskom has given itself the internal target that for new nuclear to make sense, the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) must be $60-80 per MWh for the first two reactor units, said Nicholls (who was primary instigator of the now abandoned pebble bed small modular reactor), with overnight capital cost of the early units in the region of $4500/ kW, construction time 6 years and 60 year operating life. Eskom operates South Africa’s single nuclear plant, Koeberg, equipped with two 970 MWe Framatome PWRs, which started up in 1984 and 1985.

In January, Eskom dismissed allegations that it had “usurped” the nuclear procurement from the DOE. The allegations, were part of an affidavit submitted to the Western Cape High Court, by Earthlife

Africa’s Johannesburg branch co-ordinator Makoma Lekalakala. The aim was to support the case brought by the anti-nuclear lobby group and the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute to have certain determinations made by Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson declared unlawful and unconstitutional. One of these was the 2016 determination designating Eskom, and not DOE, the procurer of 9600 MW from new nuclear plants. The DOE had indicated in its draft IRP, now out for discussion, that only 1359 MWe of nuclear power should be added to the energy mix by 2037 instead of the 9600 MWe by 2023 specified in the older IRP of 2010. It also sought to confirm that renewable energy would form a large part of the energy mix. 



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