Carte Blanche on Eskom

3G4me said:
Gosh this is soooo sad....

Makes sense what Carte Blanche was saying in between the lines. ......
Sounds like a dictatorship to me... Did they learn it from Mugabe?
Click to expand...

Perhaps a very well devised political plot to destabilise our economy and our nation!
Like one of the local political figures told me - did I realise this eskom nonsense flared up again just after Zuma got elected ..... ??

:eek::eek:
 
abjater said:
Perhaps a very well devised political plot to destabilise our economy and our nation!
Like one of the local political figures told me - did I realise this eskom nonsense flared up again just after Zuma got elected ..... ??

:eek::eek:
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Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
 
I thought that word is spelled inKOMpetence ... all "nasty" things tend to have "kom" as part of the word.
:rolleyes:
 
Moederloos said:
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence.
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Well said.

2 core government policies are largly to blame for Eishkom's Power problems.

1. AA - Chasing away all the skilled workers
2. BEE - talking work from companies that can deliver, and give it to your "stuggle comrade"
 
Great!

Now we can hear more of your ANC-apologist speak! :D

On-topic: Didn't really surprise me, this is Africa we're talking about :o
 
I've just watched the first 1/2 on MNA. What a revealing expose!!

Most problems can directly be attributed to BEE/AA and lack of planning.

They flew over the power stations and saw for themselves there was NO STOCK OF COAL. It seems they squeezed the coal transporters until they went bankrupt.
 
MNET Africa. Sometimes they show things there first, different things also - and often repeat normal Mnet stuff later.
 
Skeptik said:
They flew over the power stations and saw for themselves there was NO STOCK OF COAL.
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The stellar in depth Carte Blanche reporting again.

Considering that Majuba burns 50,000 TONS of coal per day (equivalent of a 3-storey-high rugby pitch) it is rather farking impossible for there to be none.

Did they mention which ones they flew over btw ???.

Perhaps it was Grootvlei or Komati which were mothballed in the 80's and now being re-commisioned.
 
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tibby.dude said:
The stellar in depth Carte Blanche reporting again.

Considering that Majuba burns 50,000 TONS of coal per day (equivalent of a 3-storey-high rugby pitch) it is rather farking impossible for there to be none.

Did they mention which ones they flew over btw ???.

Perhaps it was Grootvlei or Komati which were mothballed in the 80's and now being re-commisioned.
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They did, they were "operational"

You could see a handful of vehicles dropping coal. They also talked to some of the truck drivers who used to drop coal, there talking of "hundreds of trucks Q'ing every day"
 
I find it extremely ironic that AA and BEE is now ending up hurting the very people that were supposed to benefit from it. Kry vir jou, Eksdom!
 
Sapphiron said:
You could see a handful of vehicles dropping coal. They also talked to some of the truck drivers who used to drop coal, there talking of "hundreds of trucks Q'ing every day"
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http://www.miningmx.com/energy/825120.htm

Speculation amongst coal industry sources this week was that Eskom’s power stations were down to as low as a five day reserve of coal that it could burn.

Possible reasons for this development include the impact of the rain and the facts that Eskom has been running its plants flat out while the utility has been buying a lot more of the coal it burns on the spot market.

Eskom has traditionally bought the bulk of its coal through long-term supply contracts with the collieries contractually “tied-in” to supply the various power stations.

Buying on the spot market has exposed Eskom to a greater degree of competition with the export market where prices have soared from around $40/t fob Richards Bay two years ago to around $100/t currently.

Export coal is generally higher grade than the coal burnt by Eskom but it seems soaring demand and prices have encouraged coal companies to upgrade more of their product for export.
 
Noting really new being exposed by Carte Blanche with the exception of concrete numbers on the exports.

Eskom and government have been contradicting themselves and each other the last 2 weeks when asked about exports so it was obvious that they had stopped nothing and were continuing the supply to our neighbors despite our industry being crippled by power cuts.
Realistically speaking though, is it even a viable option to stop supply?
Botswana gets I think 75% of their power from SA, if we shut them off completely we would only compound the crisis for the region as a whole. Tough decisions indeed.

As for the coal issue, the numbers quoted were for transporting coal, not the coal price as such iirc.
The main point it seems is that the power stations are producing less electricity than they did last year, or the year before that. There is no excuse for this other than bad management.

The transportation of coal was outsourced to a number of BEE contractors, some with little or no experience of this type of operation. The one was an interior designer or something.
Add the bad state of roads to and from the power stations taking their toll on the reliability of the trucks and their maintainance costs, the amount Eskom was paying these contractors did not amount to a number that was even remotely possible for a business to continue.

Coal stock piles at the power plants are apparently at an all time low, in the past being enough on site for 30-45 days. We have some of the cheapest coal in the world and plenty of it, but we, for some or other reason, are incapable of getting this coal to the power stations.

The rain has always been around and the coal has always been exposed to the elements the experts say so this is no excuse.
Eskom, when pressed by D Watts would not provide any information on coal availability at the power stations. I wonder why ;)

When will Eskom and the government stop lying to the public though, thats what I want to know.
 
tibby.dude said:
The stellar in depth Carte Blanche reporting again.

Considering that Majuba burns 50,000 TONS of coal per day (equivalent of a 3-storey-high rugby pitch) it is rather farking impossible for there to be none.

Did they mention which ones they flew over btw ???.

Perhaps it was Grootvlei or Komati which were mothballed in the 80's and now being re-commisioned.
Click to expand...


See for yourself dude. I can post more if you want a closer look ..:D:D
Here are some stills from Carte Blanche.

This is Eskom's Tutuka Power Station coal storage facility.
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/500/tutuka.JPG

and Majuba
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/data/500/majuba.JPG

[from a similar thread]
 
It is incredible that half a million South Africans stand to lose their jobs but we are still exporting power. Still wondering when people will be getting fired because of this.
 
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