1. Managing Director - Resources & Strategy
AIR QUALITY BILL
Comments from Eskom
Steve Lennon
Managing Director - Resources & Strategy

2. Share of Global Energy Consumption (WEC)
North America
South and
Central America
Africa
Former Soviet Union
Western Europe
Asia Pacific
Middle East
30%
25%
19%
17% 4% 3% 2%

3. SA ENERGY POLICY
The Energy Policy of South Africa, provides valuable high level guidance regarding the priorities related to the energy sector. The five priority areas for South African energy policy are:
 increasing access to affordable energy services;
 improving energy governance;
 stimulating economic development;
 managing energy related environmental impacts;
 securing supply through diversity.

4. PARTICULATE EMISSIONS

5. CURRENT GASEOUS EMISSION CONTROL
LOW SULPHUR COAL USED FROM INCEPTION
INTERNATIONAL NORM FOR SO2 EMISSION REDUCTION PROGRAMMES
EXPORT BENEFIT

6. ESKOM AMBIENT AIR QUALITY MONITORING NETWORK

7. AIR QUALITY IN MPUMALANGA70 60 50 40 30 20 10
Vaal Triangle
Central Mpumalanga
Leandra
NOx (ppb)
SO2 (ppb)
FPM (µg/m3)

8. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Process
The consultation process could have been improved
Essential requirement to consider the economic, social and technical implications in decision making, whilst recognising the need for long term improvements in ambient air quality and environmental performance

9. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
There are many areas of the AQB where consultation with stakeholders is a necessity
establishment of a national framework;
management plans;
pollution prevention plans and
issues related to the licensing authority

10. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Strategic issues for the Electricity Supply Industry
The ESI has been established as a single integrated power distribution network and not individual power stations
National Integrated Resource Plan, is carried out at a strategic level and projections of supply and demand side options to meet long-term load forecasts
Regulation by entities may have an unintended knock-on effect in terms of impact on the network as a whole, and can be disproportionate to the originally intended impact

11. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Strategic issues for the Electricity Supply Industry
The ESI is and has always operated as a strategic entity in relation to the vital resource of electricity within South Africa
Electricity underpins many of the objectives of sustainable development and in particular, government policy as articulated in the White Paper on the Energy Policy for South Africa and GEAR
The ESI should therefore be accorded the status of a strategic industry, as a result of the special challenges that intimately affect the national interest

12. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Strategic issues for the Electricity Supply Industry
Licensing considerations should occur at a national level for the ESI, in conjunction with the relevant local and/or provincial authorities
Exemptions should be structured to allow for emergency or abnormal start-up situations

13. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
The AQB provides for a national framework, setting national norms and standards
Standards South Africa initiated a process for defining ambient air quality standards through a multi-stakeholder committee
The suggested framework outlines a comprehensive process for:
defining current air quality,
time frames for implementation or achievement

14. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Ambient air quality standards need to be set within a defined framework, which takes into consideration the varied and sometimes conflicting factors associated with the management of air quality
Ambient air quality must be managed in a holistic manner and standards cannot be set in isolation without consideration of associated socio-economic factors and the implications of setting timeframes for the achievement of standards.

15. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
It is strongly recommended that the proposed Standards South Africa standard provide the basis of the National Framework identified in the Air Quality Bill in Chapter 2

16. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Environmental impact assessments
A parallel process for conducting an EIA on a new plant and obtaining a emissions licence must be considered
Environmental impact assessments in terms of Section 24 of NEMA should not as a norm, be required retrospectively in respect of existing facilities

17. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Offences
Section 48 of the AQB provides for offences
It is inappropriate that isolated contraventions should allow a person to be branded someone who is not a fit and proper person and be found guilty of an offence
Proposed that section 48 (1) (b) be amended to read as follows:
“(b) consistently and substantively contravenes or fails to comply with a condition or requirement of an atmospheric emission license;”

18. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
Transitional ambient air quality standards
Section 60 has been substantially modified
Specific interim guidelines have been detailed without stakeholder consultation
It is abnormal to write guidelines into legislation
The guidelines should retain their current status until standards have been determined

19. ESKOM’S RESPONSE TO THE BILL
The Air Quality Bill also be tabled before other relevant parliamentary portfolio committees, in particular the Minerals and Energy Portfolio Committee

20. Thank you