Proposed development of the Castle to Hydra OHL near De Aar

The Proponent obtained Environmental Authorisation (EA) for the construction of the proposed Castle WEF and associated infrastructure, near De Aar (DEA ref: 14/12/16/3/3/2/278) on 8 May 2015. Subsequently the EA has been amended several times1 to account for changes to the proposed project’s scope. Moreover, an EA for a proposed OHL from Castle to the Hydra MTS was obtained by the proponent (DEA ref: 14/12/16/3/3/1/1351), on 5 October 2018. During the several years ensuing these EAs the number of Renewable Energy (RE) developments and associated infrastructure such as transmission lines planned for around the town of De Aar (specifically the Hydra MTS) has increased significantly. This can mainly be attributed to two factors, the availability of RE resources and ability of RE developments to feed into the national grid at the Hydra MTS. The congestion of RE infrastructure has subsequently led to the OHL authorised (DEA ref: 14/12/16/3/3/1/1351) to evacuate electricity generated from the Castle WEF to become unfeasible. Consequently, the Proponent has identified a feasible alternative OHL route to connect the Castle WEF to the Hydra MTS. The new alternative includes in part a new OHL (Section A) and in part the upgrading of an existing OHL (Section B) as well as a small section that could potentially feed into the planned (authorised but not built) De Aar South WEF substation (Section C).
The site of the Castle WEF which the proposed OHL will connect to is located approximately 26 kilometres (km) east of De Aar and the existing Hydra MTS is approximately 7 km southeast of De Aar, in the Northern Cape Province (Figure 1). The site is bordered in the west by the N10 from where access can be gained through unsurfaced roads and jeep tracks. The entire proposed OHL is situated in the Pixley ka Seme District Municipality and the majority within Emthanjeni Local Municipality (Ward 6) although a small section of the proposed eastern section of the OHL falls within the Renosterberg Local Municipality (Ward 1). The OHL will cross over several farm portions as provided below.
The proposed development entails the construction of an OHL required to connect the Castle WEF to the national Eskom electricity grid at the Hydra MTS. The Proponent (or their successor in title) proposes to develop the grid connection infrastructure under a Self- Build agreement with Eskom. It is anticipated that construction would commence within 5 years of the date of authorisation (if granted), and the construction phase would last approximately 6-18 months. Once construction of the grid connection infrastructure is complete, it is envisaged that the infrastructure (and the associated Environmental Authorisation, if granted) will be ceded to Eskom as per Eskom’s requirements. Eskom is thus expected to be the eventual owner of the infrastructure and will be responsible for the long-term operation and maintenance of the grid connection infrastructure. Alternately, pending confirmation from Eskom, part or all of the grid connection infrastructure will be owned and maintained by the Proponent instead of Eskom (i.e. Own-Build agreement).
The proposed infrastructure is expected to be permanent and will remain in place for the duration of the lifespan of the associated Castle WEF (20 years or more). Note that the construction of the proposed grid connection infrastructure is dependent on the construction timelines of the associated Castle WEF, which are not yet known. If/when the WEF are decommissioned at some point in the future, the grid connection infrastructure may also be decommissioned. The owner of the grid connection infrastructure (Eskom, or their successor in title) would be responsible for the decommissioning phase.