Power utility Eskom was not there to make money, but to supply electricity, senior GM Andrew Etzinger said on Thursday.
“We provide electricity to our customers, we are not here to make money,” he said at the Powering African Industry conference at Nasrec in Soweto. “We do need to be financially sustainable, but our mandate is to power the economy and society, not to make money.”
Eskom, which was about 90 years old, supplied electricity to 95% of South Africa.
Eskom cannot build new power plants if old ones are not properly maintained, senior GM Andrew Etzinger said on Thursday.
“Building new power plants doesn’t help. We can’t defer maintenance, it does mean on an odd day we will be vulnerable, but we have to bite the bullet and get the power plants back in order,”
Etzinger said in past years Eskom had not had the “window” to carry out the maintenance the power plants required, which had caused a backlog.
The winter maintenance plan went well and yielded the desired results.
Eskom had a better handle on the system, said Etzinger. The way Eskom managed the power grid was critical. “Partnership is vital. We need to nurture that relationship.”
Etzinger said “prosumers” and not consumers were needed as part of the partnership. The word prosumer is a contraction of producer and consumer. “Work together with Eskom to keep the grid stable.”
With 97 days to go before the Medupi power station’s unit six was powered up — he said the power station looked “fantastic”. The coal-fired power station, the first power station to be built by Eskom in 20 years, is being built near Lephalale in Limpopo.
Unit six of the power station, which has faced numerous delays in its construction, is expected to be synchronised at midday on 24 December.
Synchronisation, or first power, involves the generator being connected to the power grid, so that its power is aligned with all other generators delivering electricity into the grid. It would take several months for the unit to reach full and stable power. — Sapa
