The Board of the New Development Bank (NDB) has approved funding of R6bn for a battery storage project at Eskom as a part of its effort to promote infrastructure and sustainable development.
Established in 2014 by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) for providing development assistance to its member countries, NDB has a role cut out for South Africa to salvage the debt ridden country from its present morass. Eskom, the publicly owned power utility is in deep trouble, which has recently resorted to type 6 load shedding (severest form of power cut). BRIC funding coupled with the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and initiation public and private projects is expected to contribute to transformation of the sagging economy, which is suffering from a slew of problems, which are mostly legacy of the earlier dispensation.
The funding from NDB would meet only a part of the total cost involved in the project. The rest of the funding for restructuring and expansion would be met from funding from other sources including from multilateral sources. Eskom sources point out that the loan from NDB will be used for setting up a battery energy storage system. Storage facility sites for a total of 360 MW will be set up in a distributed manner across four provinces in South Africa. This will help in meeting peak electricity demand, by blending energy generated through conventional and non-conventional sources, thereby eliminating emissions from the utilisation of fossil fuels. The NDB’s financial support for this project is linked along with World Bank and African Development Bank. The NDB had already given assistance of about US$1.5billion to South Africa.
