Anxiety and confusion over energy transition

AS OF September, Komati power station – one of South Africa’s oldest coal fired-power plants – is due to be decommissioned as the first milestone in Eskom’s energy transition plans.

Born from agreements at an international level which recognise the urgency of mitigating the drivers of climate change, South Africa has set course to shift to a low-carbon economy.

Most recently, negotiations concerning a Just Energy Transition Transaction Partnership (JETTP) valued at R131billion were entered into, with support from France, the UK, the US and Germany to accelerate the transition away from coal.

Many questions have been raised about the potential conditions and beneficiaries of the agreement, which will consist of a combination of grants and structured loans. While transition finances are discussed behind closed doors, affected workers have been left uncertain about their futures.

The apartheid government commissioned Komati’s five-interconnected generators from 1961 to 1966 at a cost of R80 million for 1GW of capacity. The plant employs more than 600 workers.

About half the workers on site are contracted with outsourced companies with a high presence of labour brokers. A significant proportion of the workforce have held positions on site for more than 10 years and are represented by the majority union, the National Union of Mineworkers. The move to transition has created anxiety and confusion among workers.

“This process started three or four years ago. At the time decommissioning was raised, we thought there would be proper consultation but we have not been given the opportunity. Our concern is that we do not know what is going to happen to us as workers, and we have already been promised things which have not materialised. It makes us sceptical,” said Komati NUM shop steward David Fankomo.

The operational plan for the energy transition has been put forward as the “Eskom Just Energy Transition” roadmap, with the Komati project as its flagship initiative. The decommissioning plans include repowering and repurposing activities.

Repowering efforts aim to make use of the existing transmission infrastructure to reduce the cost and complexity of connecting new plants onto the grid. This could include a combination of LNG gas, renewable energy and battery storage projects. Repurposing aims to maximise other resources at the site to perform new functions producing social and economic value.

This could include a skills training centre, microgrid assembly facility and a range of new mixed land-use farming initiatives (aquaponics and agrivoltaics). A Just Transition, a principle stemming from and driven by the international trade union movement in its least progressive interpretations, requires that the livelihoods of those most affected by the energy transition be taken into account.

Against the backdrop of South Africa’s international commitments to mitigation, (in the form of our Nationally Determined Contribution, and national policy in the form of our Integrated Resource Plan, we must interrogate our commitments to the justice element as an integral part of any decommissioning plans.

Key to the interrogation is how the decommissioning process negotiates job losses, decent work, social protection and social dialogue. The energy transition affects not just workers, but entire communities which have become dependent on mining activities for their livelihoods.

As such, the impacts of job losses and uncertainty extend even beyond the borders of mining towns, and how Eskom negotiates with labour in the decommissioning of Komati sets a precedent for how workers and communities can expect their concerns to be acknowledged and incorporated into decommissioning planning.

A just transition must also be cognisant of the circumstances that wide-scale labour brokerage has exacerbated; with job security eroded, and limited (but crucial) social protections, mining communities are left with limited resources to weather uncertainty and retrenchments.

However, for workers in Komati, talk of a just energy transition is a big ruse. What is at play is a neoliberal structural adjustment pacified by rhetoric of a green agenda.

With weeks to go until plant closure at the Komati coal-fired power plant in September this year, workers lament that they are yet to be consulted about Eskom’s transitional plans. This has emerged through workshops held with workers by the Institute for Economic Justice in collaboration with the NUM Komati branch.

While actions towards an energy transition are advancing, with Eskom’s release of request for proposals and requests for interests for the Komati plant, workers have no clue about what will happen to their livelihood come September. Workers are asking: “What is the status of my employment from September? What are the minimum requirements for transfers to other facilities as part of the decommissioning process?”

The anxiety is in sharp contrast to the lip service being paid on national platforms and bills, with rhetoric that a just transition constitutes “decent work and sustainable livelihoods”, and workers and communities are not left.

The president of COP26’s visit to the Komati power plant, one of many stops, in support of work to implement the JETTP, is a farcical display of this deceitful performance of justice. His message was that “a clean, just energy transition not only delivers enhanced climate action, it will help create new jobs, economic growth, clean air and a resilient, prosperous future”.

“The South African (JTTP) puts fairness at the heart of the transition from coal to clean energy.” He posed for pictures with workers, yet workers have not been engaged on transitional plans. This shows that the Just Transition is in fact just a transition.