High-capacity coal trucks to reduce costs and emissions at South Africa's power utility

Abstract

South Africa's national power utility, Eskom, is under growing pressure to increase its power generation capacity in the face of national rolling blackouts while also containing costs, increasing revenue, and reducing its environmental impact. While the entity embarks on an ambitious $ 10 billion 2050 decarbonisation plan, there are short-term opportunities to save costs and emissions in parts of its business through relatively simple interventions. In this work, we investigate the transport of coal to Eskom's power stations. We focus on the approximately 30 million tonnes transported by road, where ‘high-capacity vehicles’ (HCVs) have already demonstrated significant productivity improvements in a national pilot project in South Africa. First, the current costs and emissions associated with the current transport activity are calculated, which amount to approximately ZAR 4 billion (US$250 m) and 230,000 t of CO2 respectively per year. A case is then presented for transitioning the coal transport fleet to 74-t high-capacity vehicles, which is calculated to save Eskom up to ZAR 248 million (US$15 m) and 35,000 t of CO2 each year. In addition, we show that the more road-friendly HCV fleet would result in a reduction in road damage valued at ZAR 50 million (US$3 m) per year. Ultimately, these cost figures represent savings to the South African taxpayer, as both Eskom and the road authorities are state entities. The precise cost benefit to Eskom, however, will depend on the nature of its coal supply contracts with local mines and transporters, but it is likely that market forces will enable these savings to be realised throughout the supply chain.