French development agency funds Eskom’s 21 GWh pumped storage project

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is providing an EUR 6.5 million ($ 6.9 million) grant towards the development of Eskom’s Tubatse Pumped Storage System (PSS) project, which will help the South Africa’s state-owned utility accomodate the growing share solar and wind energy in the nation’s electricity mix.

The project located in the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality in Limpopo, the northernmost province of South Africa has a power output of 1.5 GW (4 x 375 MW sites) and a storage capacity of 21 GWh. It was approved as a top priority infrastructure project by the Infrastructure South Africa Programme in a previous bid window.

“This support will provide Eskom and in turn South Africa with a further pathway to move from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy. Without large-scale facilities such as Tubatse, the management of intermittent power from renewable energy–wind and PV–would be very difficult without the kind of intervention that pump storage systems offer”, said Dan Marokane, Group Chief Executive at Eskom. 

According to Marokane, Eskom has developed a pipeline of more than 20 GW of clean energy projects to diversify its energy mix, including solar PV, wind, hydro, gas, nuclear and pumped storage developments. “Over the next three years we have an ambition to execute at least 2 GW of these projects,” he said.

Eskom plans to develop the Tubatse PSS project as a public-private Partnership (PPP). The utility intends to procure the services of a transaction advisor to conduct a private sector participation feasibility study and business case in the first quarter of 2026.

The transaction advisor, which will be financed by the AFD grant, will support Eskom in procuring a private developer for the project’s implementation, which is scheduled for the 2025–2033 timeframe to support the development of renewable energy in South Africa, as planned through the Just Energy Transition (JET) Investment Plan. 

“AFD’s funding to Eskom reaffirms our commitment to support Eskom’s efforts to diversify its energy mix and maintain energy security, which will ultimately strengthen its capacity to respond to the growing energy needs and economic growth of South Africa”, said Audrey Rojkoff, AFD’s regional director for Southern Africa and country director for South Africa.