Co-generation
During the year under review, our Ubombo mill in Swaziland, with its integrated co-generation facility,
exported a total of 47.8 GWh to the Swaziland national grid, an increase from 44.8 GWh exported during
the previous season. It is anticipated that the site will export 52 GWh to the national grid over a 48-week
period in 2015/16.
The sale of this clean renewable energy directly enables the Swaziland Electricity Company (SEC) to
reduce its Scope 1 emissions and consequently, its customers’ Scope 2 emissions. Based on the
Swaziland grid emissions factor published by the UNEP Ris
Ø
Centre (National Global Environmental
Facility for Swaziland – 0.683 tCO
2
per MWh), the sale of this electricity enabled SEC to avoid
32 627 tCO
2
e in 2014/15 (previous year 31 077 tCO
2
e).
Smaller scale electricity export was achieved at the Eston Mill in South Africa, which exported 4.5 GWh
into the South African electricity grid and the Maragra mill in Mozambique which exported 2.3 GWh into
the Mozambican electric grid. These exports enabled Eskom in South Africa and EDM in Mozambique to
avoid Scope 1 emissions of 4 200 tCO
2
e and 1 700 tCO
2
e respectively, directly as a result the sale of
this renewable electricity. At Dwangwa in Malawi, the operation continues to export steam to an external
organisation which would otherwise have had to generate steam using coal.
OUTPUTS
GHG and Air Emissions
Our greenhouse gas inventory is compiled following the
Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Corporate
Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition)
(“GHG Protocol”) and
The Greenhouse Gas
Protocol Agricultural Guidance: Interpreting the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard for the
Agricultural Sector
which provides standards and guidance for companies and other organisations
preparing a GHG emissions inventory (see
for details).
Emission factors are representative values, relating the quantity of an emission with an activity
associated with the release of that emission. Country-specific emission factors have been applied where
available, otherwise accepted international proxy emission factors have been adopted from reputable
sources such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UK Department for
Environment or US Energy Information Administration. The electricity grid emission factors applied to
our areas of operation vary significantly as a result of the GHG emission intensity of the electricity
generation technologies utilised by the countries within which we operate.
The primary air pollutants which are managed by Illovo include Carbon Dioxide (CO
2
), Methane (CH
4
),
Nitrous Oxide (NO
2
) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF
6
). GHG emissions are the result of burning various
fuels throughout both agricultural and industrial processes. Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs), primarily used as
refrigerants, are quantified but not reported as they are not material. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are not
applicable to our operations.
Case Study
At Illovo’s Maragra mill in Mozambique, a 4MW turbo-alternator was reinstated and came on-line in
June 2014. The unit offset electricity previously imported from the national grid for the estate’s
agricultural activities and enabled the export of renewable electricity to the national grid. The impact
of the reinstated unit was to increase the quantity of power produced per ton of cane from 23.8 kWh
per ton in 2013 to 36.2 kWh per ton in 2014. This led to a reduction in electricity imported from the
national power utility of 4.6 GWh and also resulted in 2.3 GWh being exported to the Mozambican
national grid. Therefore, the impact of this project resulted in a reduction in Scope 2 GHG emissions
of 4 200 tons of CO
2
e and avoided emissions of 1,700 tons of CO
2
e.
