Eskom Group Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer briefed the public on the power utility’s operating performance and the state of load shedding in South Africa.
As per Eskom’s System Status and Outlook report, some challenges include municipal debt and energy losses, as well as the cost of burning diesel – Eskom already spent nearly R11.2 billion on diesel this year.
Since April 1, 141 days of load shedding. Since April, South Africans had to endure 1 141 days of load shedding but load shedding is here to stay as Eskom is still experiencing a “capacity challenge”.
As per the report, the “high levels of unplanned outages remain a concern, however, we continue to drive our Reliability Maintenance Recovery Programme to reduce these”.
Oberholzer said: “We have to do reliability maintenance but we need capacity”.
Unplanned load losses increased by 30.76%, while planned maintenance remains on track – 9.24% while the target was 10.5%.
“We understand the impact on the economy and the lives of our people. But we still have a challenge with capacity”.
Oberholzer admitted Eskom’s capacity is in a terrible state. The power utility already spent R11.2 billion on open-cycle gas turbines, as of the end of October 2022.
He said there is “no money to burn diesel anymore”. Eskom would therefore be forced to continue with the implementation of load shedding.
He said the power utility used more diesel than anticipated and is now trying to burn “as little as possible diesel to preserve resources”.
In addition, to this, Oberholzer said outstanding municipal debt remains a challenge.
He said municipalities “utilise Eskom’s product without pay”, and currently “an astronomical figure” of R52 billion is owed to Eskom.
On the plus side, Eskom’s coal stock is healthy – the power utility has approximately 35 days of coal stock, with 69.7 stock days when including the excess coal at the Medupi power station.
