(4 minutes read)
- Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter said that the government ignored it’s call in 1998 for new capacity of between 4 000 to 6 000 megawatts (MW)
- This, he said, was the major reason for the current generation crises
- De Ruyter said the delayed response from the government had also resulted in design defaults at Medupi and Kusile projects. The implementation of the projects were to be rushed leading to the current design errors and defects in the power stations.
Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter said that the government ignored it’s call in 1998 for new capacity of between 4 000 to 6 000 megawatts (MW). This, he said, was the major reason for the current generation crises.
De Ruyter said the delayed response from the government had also resulted in design defaults at Medupi and Kusile projects. The implementation of the projects were to be rushed leading to the current design errors and defects in the power stations. The power utility, the CEO said, has been asking the government for the addition of megawatts on the grid to get legroom for maintenance. But there were inordinate delays in granting the permission, leading to project delays.
In his deposition before the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee, Eskom CEO reiterated the need to accelerate the additional megawatts to the grid. Fir this, he wanted expeditious clearance of the licensing agreements for the private sector generation to the extent of 100 MW. But the process of granting permission to the private sector has been moving very slowly.
In the meantime, Minister for Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan warned Eskom employees to desist from “nefarious activities”, which ultimately, undermined the integrity of the grid, Eskom and the country’s economy. He was referring to the blow out of the Medupi unit 4 generator, which blew up in July after inefficiencies in the substitution of a mixture of hydrogen, carbon dioxide. This caused an explosion that took 720MW out of the system, with delays of up to 18 months before the repairs were carried out. He also called for pruning irregular expenditure at Eskom relating to the state capture years , where an estimated R1.25 billion out of R2.1bn is attributed in current audits to the period. The funds lost to state capture needed to be separated from the current books as it gave the impression that the utility still had no control of its finances, Mr. Gordan said.
