Heritage Cases

The overall project would broadly involve the following components: ❖ A Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal, consisting of a berth with off-loading arms within the Port of Ngqura, cryogenic pipelines, storage and handling facilities and re-gasification modules (both on and off-shore) ❖ Gas and LNG pipelines and distribution hub, for the transmission, distribution and reticulation of natural gas within the Coega SEZ and Port of Ngqura - the subject of this EIA ❖ Three Gas to Power plants, each with a 1000 MW generation capacity (specific generation technologies may vary) ❖ Electricity transmission lines to evacuate electricity to the previously approved 400 kV lines in the SEZ. The CDC’s proposed gas to power project will comprise of three power plants with power generation capacities of up to 1000 MW each. A total power generation capacity of up to 3000 MW will therefore be available once the full extent of the project has been developed (which may be spread over a number of phases in a modular fashion, each with a generation capacity of approximately 500 MW, which may also be broken down into smaller sub-phases), the timing of which is unknown at this stage and is dependent on the CDC securing successful clients for the development of each component. This Draft Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIR) deals only with the construction and operation of the gas infrastructure components of the project, facilitating the supply of gas to the power plants, and the transmission of gas and LNG to third party off-takers. As developers and their chosen technologies for the gas to power plants have not yet been identified, various technologically feasible options are applied for, and the assessment presented is based on the worst case scenario for each impact. The aim of this approach is to identify the envelope limits within which the project impacts will fall, and which will be acceptable to the receiving environment with implementation of mitigation measures where relevant. The NEMA and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations, 2014 (promulgated in terms of NEMA) warrant that listed activities require Environmental Authorisation (EA). The Department of Forestry Fisheries & the Environment, (DFFE) is the competent authority for projects supplying energy to the national grid. A Scoping and Environmental Impact Reporting (S&EIR, also referred to as an EIA) process is required to support an application for EA.