Eskom needs to triple grid capacity in a decade

[Shaun Jacobs]

Eskom needs to triple grid capacity in a decade

South Africa needs to spend hundreds of billions of rands to expand its electricity grid. However, Eskom is not up to the task, forcing the government to create an entirely new company to manage the grid.

 

[Gabe Owner]

 

[eepr0m]

Eskom needs to triple grid capacity in a decade

South Africa needs to spend hundreds of billions of rands to expand its electricity grid. However, Eskom is not up to the task, forcing the government to create an entirely new company to manage the grid.

Heres the problem

"forcing the government to create an entirely new company to manage the grid."

 

[Sarg3_ZN]

Comrades, cadres and tenderpreneurs... ALL ABOARD the new gravy train.

 

[Solarion]

Their bank accounts are stuffed full. Mission accomplished. They don't care.

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

R1.3 trillion just to add solar and wind, sounds like a waste of time and obviously money

 

[HumanShield]

FFWD a decade later and Hitachi Africa is still upgrading Phase 1 after a staggering 2 trillion rand spend.

 

[pinball wizard]

Can they rather increase generation capacity to meet demand, and build from there?

 

[Paul_S]

R1.3 trillion just to add solar and wind, sounds like a waste of time and obviously money

I'm not so sure it's a bad deal.

Compare it to spending over R0.3 trillion on two coal power stations which have been under construction for the past 17 years, still haven't been completed yet and are still not generating 80% of what they were designed to.
Medupi is designed to produce a maximum of 4800MW and has cost R145 billion and counting.
Kusile is designed to produce a maximum of 4800MW has cost R161 billion and counting.
R300 billion / 9600MW = R31,25 million / MW

As a silly but scary comparison, consumer priced solar PV panels costs around R8.3 million per MWp. Make that R10 million/MWp with cabling and switch gear.

 

[Pak Fa Fui]

I'm not so sure it's a bad deal.

Compare it to spending over R0.3 trillion on two coal power stations which have been under construction for the past 17 years, still haven't been completed yet and are still not generating 80% of what they were designed to.
Medupi is designed to produce a maximum of 4800MW and has cost R145 billion and counting.
Kusile is designed to produce a maximum of 4800MW has cost R161 billion and counting.
R300 billion / 9600MW = R31,25 million / MW

As a silly but scary comparison, consumer priced solar PV panels costs around R8.3 million per MWp. Make that R10 million/MWp with cabling and switch gear.

Both kusile and medupi together cost less than R100 billion