Eskom leadership told parliament on Friday it had a “tough” week at its power stations, returning the spectre of load-shedding.
The power utility warned of a risk of load-shedding, while Eskom leadership and electricity and energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa briefed parliament on Eskom’s 2023-2024 annual report and financial statements.
Eskom group CEO Dan Marokane said after 10 months without implementing load-shedding the utility experienced a week of serious challenges at power station level. While load-shedding had not yet been declared, the risk is high, he said.
“We are considering it prudent that we let you know that during the summer plan, to the extent that unplanned outages exceed a particular level, we may have to revert to load-shedding to protect the system and system integrity.
“This week has been tough. We’ve had multiple unit trips at two big stations early in the week and we are trying to get those back online over the weekend. We’ve had to rely on our reserves to keep ourselves going but we need to replenish those reserves this weekend.”
The load-shedding warning came a day after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced it had approved an average tariff hike of 12.74% for Eskom, well above inflation but less than half the 36.15% Eskom applied for.
Eskom chair Mteto Nyati said the turnaround of Eskom has not been easy and needed management to focus on a number of things at the same time, including operation, finance and sustainability.
The generation recovery plan has been Eskom’s operational “north star” for the past 18 months and will be the key to freeing the entity of load-shedding.
He said any setbacks in turning Eskom around should not be interpreted as a hard return to the crisis of the past decade.
“It’s the thing that’s going to take us out of load-shedding. It’s two years, from March 2023 that’s coming up at the end of March 2025. By that time we would like to be in a position to come together with the minister and inform South Africa load-shedding is behind us, but there are still some actions we have to take between now and then.”
A visibly contrite Nyati said Eskom suffered due to a weak balance sheet which left the entity less funds to do grid maintenance.
Regarding Nersa’s decision to grant a tariff hike of 12.74% rather than what it had hoped for, Nyati said Eskom accepted it would have to operate more efficiently.
“We received what we received, which is nowhere close to what we asked for. We understand we are operating under a new reality where the citizens say we need to be getting increases aligned to inflation. That says something and communicates a lot to this board about how we need to operate things in future.”
Ramokgopa said the Eskom team worked hard to achieve a sustained period without load-shedding but stressed enforced power cuts are not yet behind South Africa.
“As I speak to you now, the system is under serious strain but the point I am making is we are moving in the right direction. The examination should be the trend line over an extended period. There will be dips. There will be periods of setbacks, as we are encountering now. We are going through turbulent waters on the generation front. The team is doing everything possible to keep the lights on and support the economy.
“When load-shedding is behind us, myself and the chair of Eskom will stand before the country and make those pronouncements, but we still have significant headwinds.”
ACDP MP Wayne Thring told the Eskom board its revenue improved by 14% driven by an 18.65% tariff increase, but the auditor-general found primary energy could be cheaper if losses from irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure were contained.
“The inability of Eskom’s board to stem the losses incurred over the past three to five years is treasonous, particularly for those who have been guilty of criminal conduct. Not only are the lives of South Africans put at risk but their livelihoods as well.”
DA MP Kevin Mileham expressed concern at the lack of progress in recovering outstanding debt from municipalities. He said the addition of generation in Eskom’s electricity system was cold comfort when the amount of units being taken offline were taken into consideration.
TimesLIVE
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