Giving an update on the system on Thursday, Eskom board member, Mteto Nyati, says the power utility and its board is working intently on five key priorities to improve the performance of power stations and ease load shedding as swiftly as possible.
The five priorities include the 24-month generation recovery plan, which has two key elements.
The first [element] is to make sure that we have and we guard the performance at the current flagship power stations. There are four power stations that are doing very well [and] it is very important that we look after these power stations.
Nyati continued “The second one [element] is to make sure that the top six power stations where we continue to have challenges, we focus on them [and] we drive a thorough maintenance programme at those top six power stations. It is important for us to remain focused and deliver on that plan,”
Nyati explained that Eskom’s first priority is the generation recovery plan, which involves protecting the three flagship power stations that are performing well, and focusing on building up the six underperforming stations which are struggling to maintain energy availability.
The second priority for the board is planned and unplanned outages, including at Koeberg unit 1 – which has a generating capacity of some 920MW – and the three Kusile power station units, which have been offline since October, taking with them some 2 160MW of generating capacity.
Regarding Koeberg, the power utility noted that it has enough fuel for both units at the station for another one to two years and that options are available to secure fuel if needed. This is after the national government let agreements with the United States over fuel supply lapse.
Another top priority for the board is having funds to purchase the diesel used to run Eskom’s open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), which are critical in staving off at least one stage of load shedding.
“We cannot afford to run out of funds for diesel throughout this period so… we as the board, together with management, are looking at ways and means of making sure that we have the funding because running those [OCGTs] is important for us to be able to provide and reduce the level or the stages of load shedding,” he said.
Nyati revealed that the “people and culture” of Eskom is another major priority for the board.
“We have a majority of Eskom employees who are great people doing exceptional work, who are so committed to this company and are also committed to the country. It is important that we continue to support them, so that can help us to execute this recovery plan."
He also stressed that working with government is one of the main priorities for the power utility.
Meanwhile, government is investigating whether the power crisis fulfills the legal requirements for the declaration of a National State of Disaster.
Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, said that government is currently in the process of investigating the call for the declaration of a State of Disaster.
“I have asked my team to analyse the impact of the State of Disaster. We hope to, in a short space of time, give a report [on the findings of the investigation into the State of Disaster] and what government does with that is not in my hands,” Gungubele explains.
He affirmed that there is a strong desire in government to find ways to put an end to load shedding as quickly as possible adding that there are a lot of interventions that government is implementing to address the energy challenge.
For access to load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available via the loadshedding.eskom.co.za website.
Alternatively, smartphone users can download the app "EskomSePush (ESP)" to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
