Face-off at energy indaba

A HEATED debate started yesterday when leading players in the fuel and power sectors met in Johannesburg to discuss pressing energy supply issues facing South Africa.

The SA National Energy Association's two-day "Action for Energy" conference kicked off at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways.

The association's chairman, Brian Statham, promised that discussions would ensure that a clear direction for the energy sector would be charted.

"There's been a tremendous amount of activity in energy recently," he said. "First we had the petrol crisis three years ago, but that was resolved; then we had the national energy problem last year.

"There is a lot being said by people with varying degrees of knowledge, which is creating confusion and we hope to address that."

Nelisiwe Magubane, deputy director-general of the newly formed department of energy, was confident that the government's move to separate the energy and mining sectors into two ministries would ensure that better planning would be achieved.

She said: "We've always felt like a bit of a Cinderella to mining, but, in reality, energy is the heart of the economy. We still need to go through the bureaucratic process of having the department proclaimed and budgeted for, which will probably happen by September."

The government has set a target for Sasol and fuel producers to upgrade coal-to-liquid refineries to produce clean-burning fuels by 2014.

Benny Mokaba, Sasol's executive director, was passionate in his objections to this target, saying it was not realistic and the short-term benefits did not justify the costs the company would have to incur.

Yves Guenon, business development officer for global nuclear power producer Areva, clashed with Sustainable Energy Society of SA executive council member Jason Schaffler. He was adamant that renewable power could contribute as much as 25 percent to the national grid by 2050, but Guenon wanted new power stations built.