Eskom maintenance crisis

03 March 2010 - 01:23 By NKULULEKO NCANA
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Eskom warned that the high demand for power was making it impossible for its electricity-generating plant to be taken off-line for maintenance as often as was necessary.



The utility warned that insufficient maintenance at power stations could have dire consequences for the nation's energy supply.

Eskom's chief power-generation officer, Brian Dames, told MPs that Eskom needed to spend 8.5% to 12.5% of the year on power station maintenance.

"[But] our time for maintenance is reduced significantly [and], given the demand growth, in 2012 we will only have 5% of that time available. And if we don't have enough time to do that, certainly that puts the plan at risk," he said.

Erica Johnson, Eskom's head of customer business, said the power utility had to make sure that there were enough "maintenance windows" to ensure that there was enough energy for the country's needs.

"For 2011, because the demand grows, we are saying that over the peak periods we see a deficit and are not meeting all our reserve requirements," she said.

"That would mean, in the summer months, that we will have to shift some maintenance because we constantly need to meet our demand and reserve requirements.

"That is why we are saying that the generators are asking us for window periods to do their maintenance and we are not getting enough opportunity in the summer months because the demand has grown."

Johnson said matters were made worse because Eskom was subjected to a lot of infrastructure theft, including the theft of transformers and of steel from pylons.

"And part of our challenge is security . so we have to make sure that our security along the dedicated links to the key installations is clearly supported," she said.

Dames said that to prevent major energy-supply problems, the country had to reduce energy use.

"We have no choice but to do that. As a country, from 2011 onwards, until we have the other stations coming in, we have to deal with energy efficiency.

"We do not have enough capacity to meet the requirements and the maintenance that you see is reducing. We need to do the maintenance in order to ensure reliability of our current plant."

Johnson said that to power the country's economy and ensure adequate reserve margins, 20GW of additional generation capacity was required by 2020, and up to 40GW by 2030.

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