Human sewage – the very stuff that assaulted the recent tourist season as infrastructure and power failures contributed to sending it seawards – could soften the blow of load shedding.
The uMgungundlovu District Municipality has an innovative project to get electricity from local independent power producers (IPPs) to feed industrial batteries that industry and business can plug into the moment Eskom flicks the switch off.
The uMgungundlovu innovation will transfer power produced by IPPs into existing grids to provide relief to local employers who plug into the batteries rather than be fed in the “the bottomless pit of the (national) grid”.
James Martin, head of the municipality’s economic recovery unit, stressed this was an interim measure and hoped to see it implemented by December. He said the municipality would this month call on the IPPs which had made submissions.
“The tender went out in October last year and closed on November 30, so now we have the final list of those who submitted,” said Martin.
Martin believes the hydro-electric potential of Midmar Dam and Howick Falls alone had the potential to light up the entire Mngeni Municipality.
Pig and chicken farms, as well as abattoirs, have also been identified as the main sources of methane. Hydro and solar power are also among the sources used by IPPs who have submitted proposals to supply the scheme, according to Martin.
“They did assessments of all the water treatment works (to provide methane) – Msunduzi, Howick and Mpophomeni – and they are all viable,” Martin added.
He said that if the project was all done within a local municipality, external charges would be avoided.
This way, on an internal network, it was a "plug and play".
Martin described the economic recovery unit he heads as a rip chord to fast track anything that is going to get the economy back on track. It was set up within the uMgungundlovu Municipality after the riots of July 2021.
“The biggest threat to jobs is the loss of energy,” he said.
Martin said the new 400ha smart city at Camperdown was planned as a “new Midrand” and that the least the municipality needed to offer investors was a reliable energy supply.
Martin pointed out that diesel was often an unaffordable alternative.
“Dairy farmers are R250 000 up on their diesel accounts,” he said.
He said his unit decided to focus on where there were jobs to try to provide continuous power.
Industrial batteries, while expensive, would be cost-effective as Eskom raised the price of power, he added: “Eskom power will cost 50 to 100% more in five years.”
Additions would have to be made to infrastructure by connecting IPP sources, and batteries, to substations on existing grids.
He said he believed eThekwini Municipality could get its water treatment works to turn its sewage into methane “instead of spewing it into the ocean”.
Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer Melanie Veness said putting such a plan in place was a “business imperative”.
“We have got to put some sort of plan in place. Business navigates its way around issues and this is a massive issue,” she said.
“It can be done, however,” she added.
Veness added that load shedding had created an unequal playing field for business to operate because some places experienced less than others.
“It’s not fair on businesses that have contracts and cannot deliver,” she said.
The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce’s Vusi Nhlapo said the project definitely helped to provide “a light at the end of the tunnel”.
Water expert Anthony Turton described using human sewage to produce methane, for electricity and other purposes, including for households, as “mature technology” that was neither new nor a silver bullet solution.
“Methane technology requires substantial engineering work and design,” said Turton.
He added that its effectiveness was affected by a number of variables, including their being temperature sensitive.
“In a cold place, a big difference between winter and summer temperatures would be a factor. In KwaZulu-Natal that would be less of a factor,” said Turton.
Asked whether eThekwini Municipality had considered human sewage as an energy resource, spokesman Msawakhe Mayisela said: “We will communicate our innovations on alternative sources of power at an appropriate time.”
The Independent on Saturday