Just over a month into the 2023/24 financial year, Eskom has already spent R3 billion burning diesel to maintain its electricity supply during loadshedding. This amount is nearly triple the expenditure in the first three months of 2022 when R1.3 billion was allocated for diesel purchases.
Also read: Eskom announces an alternating pattern of reduced stages for next week
According to the Cape Times, Farhat Essack, a DA member of parliament, wrote a letter to Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa requesting information about the total budget Eskom had set aside for diesel procurement in the current fiscal year as well as the amount already spent.
Ramakgopa reportedly revealed that Eskom had allocated R19.6 billion in its budget for the 2023/24 fiscal year, with R3 billion spent as of 8 May 2023. Ramakgopa also stated that an additional R30 billion would be spent on burning diesel to reduce loadshedding, with R8 billion going towards diesel purchases and the remaining R22 billion coming from Eskom’s R254 billion in relief funds.
Another DA MP, Ghaleb Cachalia, questioned Pravin Gordhan, the minister of public enterprises, about how much diesel Eskom had used for power generation over the previous two fiscal years and the associated costs.
Gordhan provided the figures, stating that Eskom consumed 571 295 617 litres of diesel in the fiscal year 2021/22, costing R6.4 billion. Consumption increased to 937 508 149 litres in the fiscal year ending March 2023, at a cost of R2.3 billion. However, Gordhan clarified that the R6.4 billion figure included an R2.2 billion rebate that was written off retrospectively for the fiscal year 2021/22 in 2022/23.
Gordhan stated that the actual cost of diesel consumption, excluding rebates, was R8.7 billion, according to the Cape Times.
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The clarification of these diesel fuel costs coincides with Eskom’s recent announcement that, due to lower demand and increased generation capacity, stage 2 loadshedding would be implemented from 4pm on Sunday until 5am on Monday, with loadshedding suspended until 4pm. Loadshedding would then resume until 5am on Tuesday, followed by stage 1 loadshedding until 4pm.
According to Eskom, this alternating pattern will continue until further notice and loadshedding may be temporarily suspended for a few hours during overnight periods of low demand in order to effectively manage the system. In the announcement, Eskom stated that its current generating capacity has been reduced to 15 846 MW due to breakdowns, with an additional 2 239 MW out of service for planned maintenance.
In response to a question from Mkhuleko Hlengwa, an MP from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Ramokgopa denied that loadshedding stages 7 and 8 were implemented during his tenure. He claimed that as of midday on 8 May, stage 6 was the highest level of loadshedding in South Africa and that stages 7 and 8 had never been implemented.
Ramokgopa further explained that each stage of load curtailment equated to an approximately 5% reduction in demand from large customers, with stage 4 removing up to 1 000 megawatts from the power system.
As reported by the Cape Times, Ramakgopa hinted at the possibility when IFP MP Themba Msimang questioned whether stage 8 loadshedding was more likely than a crisis resolution. He said that the winter outlook indicated an increased risk of supply shortfall against anticipated demand and that stage 8 loadshedding could occur if interventions failed.
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