De Ruyter took over Eskom at a time when the SOE is saddled with R454bn of debt and isn’t generating enough revenue to cover its costs. Regular outages due to plant breakdowns have pushed the economy into a recession.
The Kendal, Duvha and Tutuka power plants — which have a combined generation capacity of 11,370MW — are in particular need of maintenance, according to the documents.
If allowed to proceed, the programme could end power cuts within two years, catch up delayed maintenance by fiscal 2023, and save R9.27bn a year in costs by that date, Eskom said. By the end of the 2022 financial year, it could increase the amount of generation capacity it has available on average by between 4,521MW and 6,000MW.
Risks to the company’s generation capacity if nothing is done are partly due to the plants’ failure to comply with emissions rules. Plants could have their atmospheric-emission licences revoked temporarily, risking capacity of 4,470MW, and a total of 9,000MW is at risk if pollution-abatement equipment isn’t installed at a number of facilities, Eskom said.
In order to mitigate the effect of power cuts, Eskom is implementing a number of measures including less load-shedding during periods of heavy traffic, and reducing availability more frequently between 9pm and 6am. In the short term, more power cuts are expected in the winter months this year as “repairs take effect”.
The SOE also suggests cutting power first to areas where few consumers pay their bills, a politically explosive suggestion, as most of those would be in townships where some of the poorest people live. In Soweto alone, 133,236 customers owe Eskom R16.9bn, Eskom said. Around the country, a number of municipalities are in arrears to Eskom.Would you like to comment on this article or view other readers' comments? Register or sign in now.
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