One of the world’s largest operators of floating power plants has been granted access to South Africa’s three ports: Ngqura, Durban and Saldanha Bay. This will span 20 years, the South African Transport Ministry said Thursday, as part of the government’s efforts to address the country’s pressing power shortage. Türkiye’s Karpowership aims to generate power on its floating gas ships and distribute it through South Africa’s electricity grid. The plan received a boost from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week after he told lawmakers the vessel would help ease the prolonged power shortage countrywide.
Karpowership has faced numerous challenges from environmental activists and small-scale fishermen since the South African government in 2021 granted it the biggest share of a 2,000-megawatt emergency power tender to generate electricity. However, opposition parties have criticized the 20-year contract, valued at billions of rand, saying it was too long for an emergency power supply and suggesting that none of Karpowership’s other contracts in countries such as Ghana and Brazil was for such a lengthy period.
On Thursday, South Africa’s state power utility Eskom warned the country to brace itself for winter when almost daily power cuts were likely to increase due to higher demand. Africa’s most industrialized economy has seen its gross domestic product (GDP) suffer as its population copes with supply cuts lasting over 10 hours daily in the country’s worst power crisis.