“If we are able to burn diesel on a continuous basis, this will enable us to reduce load-shedding by about two levels. Fuel for open-cycle gas turbines is vital. Repairing coal plant and getting additional capacity to the grid are the two levers Eskom is pulling,” said De Ruyter.
He stressed that while forgoing planned maintenance to avoid load-shedding in the immediate term may be tempting, the planned maintenance on power plants that Eskom performed was vital to ensuring that plants run better in the long term. He said skirting load-shedding from planned maintenance for the next six months would yield catastrophic results in the long term.
“The more planned maintenance you do the higher your energy availability factor becomes. If we want to give the energy availability factor a boost of 10%, we can just stop doing planned maintenance but the minute we stop doing that we affect the ability of the plant to be available in future,” De Ruyter said.
He said embedded energy from independent power producers (IPPs) would also alleviate the burden in time. He said while spending on IPPs will grow by at least 18.2% between 2020 and 2027 compared to 4.7% on coal plant repairs and maintenance in the same period, costs will stabilise as more power is received from them.
After De Ruyter’s address, the committee meeting had a shift in tone, with MPs jostling over time to question the Eskom delegation. Most of the questions criticised commitment to IPPs, given Eskom’s high immediate spending on them.
ANC MPs Thokozile Malinga and Nkosinathi Dlamini asked De Ruyter why Eskom was spending a lot on diesel when coal was available and seemed unaware that the diesel Eskom required was meant to run open-cycle gas turbines as an application of combustible gas power.
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Eskom’s 60% generation target for 2023 not achievable: De Ruyter to MPs
Outgoing Eskom group CEO Andre De Ruyter told parliament that the power utility’s target of 60% energy availability for the 2023 financial year could not be achieved, and that energy capacity for the country remained dire.
De Ruyter’s remarks came at a parliamentary meeting called to discuss immediate and medium-term solutions to load-shedding, funding for the maintenance of coal plants and independent power producers, as well as Eskom’s responses to submissions by organised labour.
A January submission by Eskom to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts said South Africa would see an improvement in the country’s electricity availability factor from about 56.6% to 60% as soon as the end of March.
Tuesday’s update was a joint meeting of the portfolio committee on public enterprises, the portfolio committee on mineral resources and energy, and the select committee on public enterprises and communication.
De Ruyter told MPs that the target of 60% energy availability for the financial year 2023 was not achievable and that the current year-to-date energy availability factor was 56.6%, with only two months left in the year.
“Assuming a PCLF (planned capability loss factor) of 10.5% and an OCLF (other capability loss factor) of 1.5% for the remaining two months, UCLF (unplanned capability loss factor) would need to be limited to 10.85%. This equates to a UCLF of about 5,000MW and a total unplanned loss of about 5,700MW, which is unrealistic considering the current situation,” said De Ruyter.
He said to achieve the 70% target for the 2025 financial year, unplanned losses will have to be limited to about 9,200MW on average.
De Ruyter said to soften the blow of load-shedding in the immediate term, ensuring that Eskom had funds for diesel to run open-cycle gas turbines at their maximum capability could save South Africa from up to two levels of load-shedding.
“If we are able to burn diesel on a continuous basis, this will enable us to reduce load-shedding by about two levels. Fuel for open-cycle gas turbines is vital. Repairing coal plant and getting additional capacity to the grid are the two levers Eskom is pulling,” said De Ruyter.
He stressed that while forgoing planned maintenance to avoid load-shedding in the immediate term may be tempting, the planned maintenance on power plants that Eskom performed was vital to ensuring that plants run better in the long term. He said skirting load-shedding from planned maintenance for the next six months would yield catastrophic results in the long term.
“The more planned maintenance you do the higher your energy availability factor becomes. If we want to give the energy availability factor a boost of 10%, we can just stop doing planned maintenance but the minute we stop doing that we affect the ability of the plant to be available in future,” De Ruyter said.
He said embedded energy from independent power producers (IPPs) would also alleviate the burden in time. He said while spending on IPPs will grow by at least 18.2% between 2020 and 2027 compared to 4.7% on coal plant repairs and maintenance in the same period, costs will stabilise as more power is received from them.
After De Ruyter’s address, the committee meeting had a shift in tone, with MPs jostling over time to question the Eskom delegation. Most of the questions criticised commitment to IPPs, given Eskom’s high immediate spending on them.
ANC MPs Thokozile Malinga and Nkosinathi Dlamini asked De Ruyter why Eskom was spending a lot on diesel when coal was available and seemed unaware that the diesel Eskom required was meant to run open-cycle gas turbines as an application of combustible gas power.
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