Unplanned outages, high diesel costs and unpaid municipal bills remain causes for concern for Eskom, as the power utility spent billions this year to address the country’s electricity crisis.
This week, Eskom Group Chief Operating Officer, Jan Oberholzer, briefed the public on the power utility’s operating performance and the state of loadshedding, citing municipal debt and energy losses, as well as the cost of burning diesel, as some of the major issues in their System Status and Outlook report.
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According to the report, South Africans had to endure 141 days of loadshedding (159 as of 15 November) from April to October.
“The high levels of unplanned outages remain a concern, however, we continue to drive our Reliability Maintenance Recovery Programme to reduce these,” said Oberholzer. “We have to do reliability maintenance but we need capacity.”
“We understand the impact on the lives of our people. But we still have a challenge with capacity.”
Oberholzer acknowledged that the power utility’s capacity was in a terrible state, having spent R11.2 billion on open-cycle gas turbines as of the end of last month.
He explained that there was “no money to burn diesel anymore” and Eskom would be forced to continue implementing loadshedding.
He stated that Eskom had also used more diesel than anticipated and was now trying to preserve resources.
Oberholzer further added that outstanding municipal debt remained a challenge with local governments owing Eskom an “astronomical figure” of R52 billion.
“We do not have money, we do not have cash. If you don’t have money, you cannot spend. And this is where Eskom finds itself. We do not have any more money to spend on diesel.”
“With what we have available and how the system performs, we’ll see how to move forward.”
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Picture: Cape{town}Etc/ Murray Swart