Africa-Press – South-Africa. Former Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer has been appointed non-executive chairperson of Mulilo Energy Holdings, a renewable energy firm with significant investments in SA.
Oberholzer, whose contract as COO ended in April, took on a two-year contract with Eskom in June to oversee the completion of Kusile power station and the extension of life at Koeberg. He quit abruptly in July amid talk of a clash with Eskom chairperson Mpho Makwana, with whom he has never seen eye to eye.
Mulilo Energy is an independent power producer majority-owned by global energy investment fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). CIP was founded more than a decade ago with investments from large Danish pension funds.
It has grown into the world’s largest dedicated fund manager focused on greenfield renewable energy investments.
CIP now manages €25 billion on behalf of 150 global institutional investors and has 11 funds that own large infrastructure projects in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US.
It recently bought a 87% stake in South Africa’s Mulilo, which has 420MW of solar PV projects in SA and 240MW of wind. It also has a hybrid solar and battery storage project, a hybrid gas and battery storage project, and a solar PV project in development.
Mulilo has a target to develop and own 5GW in solar and battery storage projects in the next five years, CIP said.
“I believe that is where I would like to play a part and make a contribution outside Eskom.
“Eskom knows what they need to do. They’ve got their recovery plans and they will carry on and do exactly what they must do. But we need now other players to make sure that there is additional capacity in the country,” Oberholzer told News24, adding:
Gas – “if it promotes renewables” – will also be a focus, says Oberholzer.
CEO of Mulilo Johnny Cullum said in a statement that Oberholzer’s understanding of the energy industry and his commitment to a just energy transition to cleaner forms of energy made him an ideal leader for the company.
Oberholzer said he aimed to ensure that Mulilo would help grow the SA economy through its cost competitiveness. He said he looked forward to “this new and exciting chapter with gratitude”.
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