Those units in Eskom’s coal fleet that do work are being utilised at a rate of more than 90% versus an international benchmark of 70% – and that concerns lenders, an energy expert has said.
Browsing: Jan Oberholzer
So far this year, Eskom has experienced 342 unit trips against a target of 196, 4.61GW of load losses against a target of 3.97GW and 23.1% unplanned load losses against a target of 18%.
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said load shedding is not expected during the upcoming local government elections.
Eskom has vowed to continue with its accelerated maintenance programme throughout the summer months.
Over the next five years, Eskom is expected to have an electricity supply shortage of 4GW. However the shortfall could increase as the economy grows, according to the power utility’s chief executive, André de Ruyter.
Eskom said it is undertaking long-overdue repairs at its facilities amid a high risk of nationwide outages, and it expects supply to improve later this year.
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said on Thursday that the risk of load shedding will be significantly reduced after the completion of the reliability maintenance by September 2021.
With South Africa’s biggest state utility in crisis, one of parliament’s most important financial oversight committees called an urgent online meeting with the company.
Electricity monopoly utility Eskom has shuffled some senior managers weeks after missing its own target for restricting power outages.
Eskom may have broken tender laws in concluding a 2005 agreement with Black & Veatch that increased more than 100-fold in cost, according to a probe of the contract.