On-farm hydroelectric power boosts dairy's bottom line

Hydroelectric power production need not mean massive installations for large-scale commercial supply. KwaZulu-Natal farmer Peter Ward’s small-scale hydroelectric system on his farm generates sufficient power for his dairy enterprise while saving his operation up to R1,3 million a year. At the same time, he uses the precious resource of water sustainably.

- Lloyd Phillips

With South Africa being a water-scarce country, opportunities for widespread hydroelectricity production are largely limited to sites capable of generating under 100MW each, according to information provided by the US Department of Energy.

One such small-scale hydroelectric power plant has been operating intermittently in a hidden nook on the Mooi River, which runs through the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, since the 1970s. According to Peter Ward, who co-owns Kruisfontein Farming with Dr Strydom Steyn, local lore is that the various previous owners of this hydropower plant, and the land on which it stands, used and modified the plant to suit their own needs over the decades.

IMPORTING A TURBINE

“In 2012, when Dr Steyn bought the land, the hydroelectric plant on it was in disrepair. He and an electrical engineer friend, Johan van Zyl, upgraded the 430m furrow used to temporarily divert water from the Mooi River and down to the power plant, and imported a new turbine and plant control equipment from the Siapro engineering company in Slovenia, Eastern Europe,” explains Ward.

Steyn and Van Zyl formed a small business, Mooi Hydro, in 2013 with the intention of selling the hydroelectricity to Eskom. This, according to Ward, was when “Eskom had money and was buying electricity from independent power producers”.

Mooi Hydro signed a supply contract, which was to be renewed annually, with Eskom, making Mooi Hydro the only private hydroelectricity supplier to Eskom at that time. However, within a few years, the utility stopped renewing supply contracts with many independent power producers, including Mooi Hydro.