While President Jacob Zuma on Friday celebrated Eskom’s Medupi power station moving a step closer to contributing its first electricity to the national grid next year, analysts have warned that economic growth of 6% is a far-off dream if power capacity or efficiencies are not expanded faster. Experts say economic growth of 6% will not be achieved if South Africa’s power capacity sor efficiencies are not expanded faster.
South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) growth tends to match growth in extra power capacity, and even with the new Medupi and Kusile plants coming on stream up to 2020, a long, slow growth path of less than 3% lies ahead unless more energy is found. Mr Zuma initiated the final phase of a pressure test on the boiler of the first unit of Medupi on Friday. It will be the first new power station South Africa has built in more than two decades. Once it is complete, at a cost of R91bn, it will be the world's fourth-largest coal-fired power station, with a total installed capacity of 4800MW.
Achieving 6% growth will remain a challenge until all the plans fall into place, but long lead times of projects continue to worry analysts and government planners. For example, the Gautrain commuter railway sytem was commissioned in 2000 and took 12 years to complete. While nuclear and green technologies remain high on the agenda, the nuclear plant at Koeberg took 14 years to get going. South Africa is, at least, past the planning stages on big projects such as Medupi and the Gautrain, as they are now operational, while a major freeway improvement plan is coming into play. Mr Garrow says South Africans must also consider these to be wins. "They are not knee-jerk response to global conditions," he said. "That is a blessing."
This article was written by Evan Pickworth first published on www.Businessday.co.za.
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