South Africa’s power utility is betting on brainpower. During a site visit to Eskom’s Research, Testing and Development (RT&D) Centre in Johannesburg this week, Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the facility’s capabilities can power the utility into what he called “a green and prosperous future”.
“We really want to position Eskom as a leader in terms of technology innovation, so there’s a lot of investment that needs to be made in terms of research and development,” Ramokgopa said, according to SAnews.
An Unmatched Advantage
The Minister was unambiguous about where he believes Eskom’s edge lies. “The real advantage that Eskom has is in research, development, innovation and technology going into the future. In this area we are unmatched, and we are beginning to position ourselves,” he said.
With Eskom back in profit, Ramokgopa committed to ploughing earnings into the lab: “We will look to invest more and more of the earnings that Eskom is recording so that we go back to the glory days and in fact, surpass those.”
The RT&D Centre gives Eskom the in-house capability to test, validate and scale solutions — both for immediate operational needs and for the electricity landscape of the future.
Cleaner Air Around Power Stations
Among the live projects at the facility is work on reducing emissions at Eskom’s coal-fired power stations, in line with regulations issued by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. “We have every intention of complying,” the Minister said.
While countries such as China and Japan are further along with emission-reducing technology, Ramokgopa said he was happy to see first-hand that South Africa is doing the work too. Though not yet at commercial scale, he said the team is “getting there slowly” — and the payoff is significant.
“The positive outcome of this is that we will be able to continue to exploit our natural endowments … and we are able to meet our obligations with regard to emission standards, and we are able to protect lives in the immediate footprint of our various coal-fired power stations,” he said. Government will also look to partner with more advanced technology players and domesticate those solutions locally.
Green Hydrogen on the Horizon
Eskom’s ambitions stretch well beyond compliance. The utility has established Eskom Green to pursue the country’s renewable energy endowments, and the research team is already investigating opportunities in green hydrogen — a field where South Africa’s sun, wind and industrial know-how could make it a global player.
“We are on the right path,” Ramokgopa said.
For a utility that has spent recent years rebuilding its operational performance, the message from Johannesburg is a hopeful one: the next chapter of South Africa’s energy story is being written not just in power stations, but in laboratories — by South African engineers and scientists.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
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