Page 3 - Energize May 2022

FROM THE EDITOR:

What can we do about load

by Roger Lilley, Now Media shedding?

he confrontation which erupted recently between postponing or neglecting scheduled maintenance of generating
Busisiwe Mavuso, an Eskom board member and head of units and ancillary equipment at most of Eskom’s power stations.
TBusiness Leadership SA (BLSA), and Mkuleko Hlengwa, Now, where maintenance had been neglected, more work will be
the chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public needed to improve reliability, meaning more time offline and more
Accounts (SCOPA) shows how defensive both sides are regarding money needed per unit.
load shedding. Medupi and Kusile’s costs have increased from a budget of
SCOPA blamed Eskom’s CEO André de Ruyter and the Eskom about R162-billion to over R450-billion. These cost overruns,
board for the utility’s problems; Mavuso said the government was together with non-paying municipalities and direct customers,
to blame for “the mess” that Eskom is in. have robbed the power utility of the cash it needs to fund the full
During recent media briefings, de Ruyter reiterated the problem maintenance schedule of older existing power stations. Recently,
of ageing power generating units which keep breaking down. The de Ruyter admitted that money for spare parts was scarce.
average age of Eskom’s generating plant is 42 years, he said, with To overcome these shortages, Eskom had requested – and
the oldest being well over 50. Spares for such old equipment are received – tens of billions of rand in “bailouts” from Treasury.
hard to find, have to be custom made, and are expensive. At the same time, it had requested – but was always denied –
In 1998, electricity experts advised Government to build a excessive tariff increases from the national energy regulator.
set of new power stations to support the anticipated growth in Nonetheless, the increases it was given exceeded the official
demand for electricity and give Eskom the opportunity to close old, inflation rate, making electricity an expensive commodity.
inefficient and unreliable power stations. Government ministers In January 2020, the minister of Public Enterprises said
were apparently told that failure to do so “soon” would result in electricity was four times more expensive than in 2010. The
electricity shortages from 2007. reason? Cost overruns at Medupi and Kusile.
However, it took Government almost ten years to authorise Many would say that Government should accept the blame.
Eskom to begin a new build programme. That programme resulted They say that the ten-year delay in authorising the new build
in the construction of the Medupi and Kusile coal-fired power programme, and the years of political interference which included
stations, and the Ingula pumped-water storage peaking plant, the appointment of unsuitable people in key positions at Eskom,
which should have increased Eskom’s generating capacity by over have resulted in the utility being in the state it’s in. Eskom has had
10 000 MW. ten CEOs in as many years. Another change is unlikely to solve the
Construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations should utility’s problems.
have been completed by 2015, but neither are yet complete. Government would argue that it supported Eskom by
In August 2021, when Eskom announced that Medupi had been supplying the bailouts requested, and that it initiated the REIPPP
completed, Bheki Nxumalo, Eskom’s group executive for its group programme to get more power online. But is that enough?
capital division, quickly added that there was still work outstanding Shouldn’t Government become more involved in addressing
and it would be another 2 years before Medupi would provide full the ongoing problem of non-payment? Especially non-payment
power to the grid. The expected completion date of Kusile is now by municipalities, government entities and departments. Also,
2023 or later. perhaps Government should allow Eskom some latitude in terms
That’s not to say these power stations don’t supply power of its purchasing agreements – buying spare parts directly from
to the grid. They do. Some of the units at both sites have been OEMs, rather than through local agents which add little or no value
completed and supply power. But few supply the full 800 MW they but increase costs substantially.
were meant to supply, leaving Eskom with a serious shortfall in Although it may seem natural to find someone to blame, this
capacity. This shortfall is exacerbated when these units and those is not the time for pointing fingers or assigning blame. Rather,
at older, more unreliable power stations trip or fail. Eskom, Government and the private sector need to work together
So, since 2007, load shedding has become common place. to reduce the frequency and depth of load shedding. The country
Although there was a period of respite between 2009 and 2013, it needs additional generation and a well-designed energy-saving
was subsequently shown that that had been achieved by delaying, programme to help it overcome the need for load shedding.

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