Eskom is working hard to avoid higher levels of load shedding

The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) held an emergency meeting with Eskom board members to find funds to purchase diesel supplies in order to avoid increased load shedding.

On Sunday evening (20 November), Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan met with Eskom chair Mpho Kakwana to discuss immediate issues confronting the national power utility.

Eskom raised load shedding to Stage 4 last week, citing low diesel supply, low pumped storage dam levels, and breakdowns as the primary causes of the recent increase in rolling blackouts.

Load shedding was then pushed to Stage 5 for this week due to more breakdowns over the weekend and the depletion of emergency generation reserves.

South Africa has experienced the worst year of load shedding on record, with ordinary South Africans bearing the brunt of it, slowing economic growth and halting the country’s day-to-day operations.

This is only going to worsen.

The national utility’s best-case scenario in its 12-month outlook calls for seven days of load shedding this summer, but only if it can spend billions of rands on diesel while keeping breakdowns below 13,000MW – an ambitious goal given its track record.

The organisation is already over budget, with no funds available to replenish its diesel reserves, which are intended solely for an emergency generation. According to Jan Oberholzer, Eskom’s chief operating officer, the company has spent more than R11.2 billion on diesel this year through the end of October.

Diesel prices have been rising globally; as Europe prepares for winter, demand has increased while supply has decreased due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. This has made obtaining the much-needed fuel far more difficult and costly for the national power utility.

Even if Eskom was able to secure funding for all of the diesel it requires, Oberholzer stressed that the group is physically limited in how much diesel it can transport, fill, and burn each day.

The group previously stated that it is physically limited to using approximately R2.4 billion in diesel per month, so even more diesel would not be sufficient to fully resolve energy supply issues.

In the coming months, energy will be even more scarce.

Unit 1 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station will be shut down on December 8, 2022, for routine maintenance and refuelling, as well as the replacement of three Steam Generators (SGR) as part of the long-term operation to extend the operating life of Africa’s only nuclear power station.

The unit, which is the most dependable of Eskom’s generation machines, is expected to return to service in June 2023. During this time, 920MW of generation capacity will be removed from the national grid.

This will add to the slew of units that are offline due to technical issues, totaling nearly 3,000MW of energy, highlighting Eskom’s massive challenge in meeting energy demand.

South Africa has had its worst load-shedding year on record, with 155 days of rolling blackouts since January.

Additional concerns

The meeting on Sunday, November 20th, also included a discussion between the board and the department on the following topics:

• Looking for savings within the current Eskom funds for the ongoing purchase of diesel and maintenance.

• Assessing the board on the challenges Eskom faces in the current fleet of power stations and the exceptional interventions that must be taken to create more reliability in the performance of power stations.

• Urgently seeking the assistance of all the enforcement bodies to immediately bring a halt to the local level disruptions and criminal; activities which impact power stations.