Eskom warns it may have to shut down 16,000MW after pollution exemptions declined

[Creag]

To me this sounds like extortion and blackmail.

 

[dualmeister]

Yet again. Something that should have planned for decades ago.

 

[bixt]

If these standards existed from 2010 ( per the article), why did the honourable minister not apply them when they had their BEE ministers all these years eh?

Seems like they want to sabotage the work of Mr Whitey so he can't stop the rot of procurements and fire the useless glut of staff. Nothing different between this act, and the cutting of those pylons.

 

[John Tempus]

What a crock of sht. There is no outright law that prevents them from running any levels of pollution. Who is holding them at gun point preventing them from running all powerplants at max capacity ? NO ONE.

Eskom have no problem looting tax payer money but now apparently will adhere to pollution requirements ? Says who... Our economy right now is vastly more important than what might happen due to the extra pollution in 100 or 1000 years.

This SCREAMS to me as a way for Eskom to justify a massive price hike and they will use this as their excuse.

Wait for it.

 

[s0lar]

My best buddy back in school. I overheard his father saying this was what was going to happen to SA. They immigrated in '94. Really sad he was right, I was just a school kid at the time.

 

[John Tempus]

“This would have a significant negative impact on the economy and employment, particularly in Mpumalanga and Lephalale, and delay the country’s plans for a just energy transition toward a cleaner electricity supply.”


This makes zero sense, if anything this will accelerate the shift to cleaner energy.

ANC logic I guess.

The problem is that cleaner energy in SA is still extremely expensive. If thousands of people lose their jobs , even fewer people will start investing in solar etc. which means the prices will just remain extremely high and the cycle will just get deeper and deeper as people get poorer and poorer with no intention to fork out money for cleaner energy.

Eskom wont rush to replace the loss in power with cleaner energy either. With cleaner energy there is fewer moving parts and fewer golden tenders to assign for no job rendered.

If these regulations do get enforced I only see a whole lot of negative from it for the average citizen.

Even if we were to move to cleaner energy right now and we had all the funds available I see no way in hell we will make any noticeable progress in the next 10-15 years. By that time the country will be up in flames making the cleaner energy mission completely pointless.

The only way for us to make any progress towards cleaner energy and also not impact the economy abruptly would be to actually have competent people in charge of the money and tenders and migrate to cleaner energy by replacing old units when the new cleaner units are up and running.

 

[John Tempus]

My best buddy back in school. I overheard his father saying this was what was going to happen to SA. They immigrated in '94. Really sad he was right, I was just a school kid at the time.

We all knew deep down the current direction of SA were inevitable. It was even more evident in the early 90's since you could not pin point a successfully run African country even if you wished for it.

Africa is simply riddled with tribes and dictators who only fight to then enrich themself while leaving all their supposedly fellow citizens squandering in the sht.

 

[SubtleBeast]

Why not just grant ESKOM the damned exemption?
I mean, who needs clean air anyways.

 

[Lupus]

The problem is that cleaner energy in SA is still extremely expensive. If thousands of people lose their jobs , even fewer people will start investing in solar etc. which means the prices will just remain extremely high and the cycle will just get deeper and deeper as people get poorer and poorer with no intention to fork out money for cleaner energy.

Eskom wont rush to replace the loss in power with cleaner energy either. With cleaner energy there is fewer moving parts and fewer golden tenders to assign for no job rendered.

If these regulations do get enforced I only see a whole lot of negative from it for the average citizen.

Even if we were to move to cleaner energy right now and we had all the funds available I see no way in hell we will make any noticeable progress in the next 10-15 years. By that time the country will be up in flames making the cleaner energy mission completely pointless.

The only way for us to make any progress towards cleaner energy and also not impact the economy abruptly would be to actually have competent people in charge of the money and tenders and migrate to cleaner energy by replacing old units when the new cleaner units are up and running.

Cleaner energy is actually expensive every where, hence why countries/states that have implemented it have higher energy tariffs compared to those that didn't.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

gues who voted ANC, Congrats Clowns!

 

[system32]

Soon every day will be Braai Day

Just don't braai outside - Eskom pollution will kill you

 

[ToxicBunny]

So I can vaguely see why a stupidly old coal station falls foul of the regulations..

My question is who is being dealt with for Medupi not being able to meet the regulations, and what about Kusile? Can it meet them, and if so why can't Medupi since they're broadly the same damn plant in different locations.

 

[Johnatan56]

Cleaner energy is actually expensive every where, hence why countries/states that have implemented it have higher energy tariffs compared to those that didn't.

Utter nonsense. On average, renewables are the cheapest source of energy. The reason why most places that are more expensive have it, is that they often invested in it before viable, e.g. California, but the cost for anything new in solar or wind is way cheaper than any other alternative. Other reasons include that they're also building out grid infrastructure etc. (Germany).

Examples where it brought down the electricity price include South Australia, note when they invested, after renewable became viable.

The problem is that cleaner energy in SA is still extremely expensive. If thousands of people lose their jobs , even fewer people will start investing in solar etc. which means the prices will just remain extremely high and the cycle will just get deeper and deeper as people get poorer and poorer with no intention to fork out money for cleaner energy.

Solar/wind is quick to build and cheap compared to alternatives, in 5 years if IPP set-up, you could probably manage to build a good 10-20GW, government just needs to properly set up competitive contracts, waive BEE and let international also compete.

 

[Lupus]

Utter nonsense. On average, renewables are the cheapest source of energy. The reason why most places that are more expensive have it, is that they often invested in it before viable, e.g. California, but the cost for anything new in solar or wind is way cheaper than any other alternative. Other reasons include that they're also building out grid infrastructure etc. (Germany).

Examples where it brought down the electricity price include South Australia, note when they invested, after renewable became viable.

Solar/wind is quick to build and cheap compared to alternatives, in 5 years if IPP set-up, you could probably manage to build a good 10-20GW, government just needs to properly set up competitive contracts, waive BEE and let international also compete.

Yawn at it again... Cheap to build doesn't mean it's cheap to run. You keep forgetting peaks, where expensive fuel is used.

 

[system32]

The problem is that cleaner energy in SA is still extremely expensive. If thousands of people lose their jobs , even fewer people will start investing in solar etc. which means the prices will just remain extremely high and the cycle will just get deeper and deeper as people get poorer and poorer with no intention to fork out money for cleaner energy.

Eskom wont rush to replace the loss in power with cleaner energy either. With cleaner energy there is fewer moving parts and fewer golden tenders to assign for no job rendered.

If these regulations do get enforced I only see a whole lot of negative from it for the average citizen.

Even if we were to move to cleaner energy right now and we had all the funds available I see no way in hell we will make any noticeable progress in the next 10-15 years. By that time the country will be up in flames making the cleaner energy mission completely pointless.

The only way for us to make any progress towards cleaner energy and also not impact the economy abruptly would be to actually have competent people in charge of the money and tenders and migrate to cleaner energy by replacing old units when the new cleaner units are up and running.

It's called a "Just Energy Transition" (JET).

Just Energy Transition (JET) - Eskom

Eskom’s Just Energy Transition (JET) Office was established earlier in 2020 and has made significant strides to progress the evolution for transition towards

www.eskom.co.za

And cleaner energy is NOT more expensive than Eskom, just consider the facts:
REIPPPP came in less than Eskom cost of coal.
Renewable creates more jobs.

According to my reading of the article:

• Eskom is asking for permission to break the law
• Eskom wants to pollute even more - current output is 7 x higher than legal limit of 500mg/Nm3 x 7 = 3,500mg/Nm3, until 2025 but Eskom wanted to push the pollution limit higher to 4,000mg/Nm3 until 2030 (for free)
• Eskom wants to cause more environmental damage and deaths (for free)
• Eskom had made minimal effort to fully comply with the standards first published in 2010.
• Eskom's Medupi is brand new and does not comply with environmental laws
• Eskom is only able to charge (not low) rates because it pollutes, else we would be paying R4.00+ per kWh
• Eskom can ask the minister to break the law - I must have read wrongly that the law is supreme in ZA.

If we consider this, then Eskom makes a pretty good case for renewables.

 

[Johnatan56]

So I can vaguely see why a stupidly old coal station falls foul of the regulations..

My question is who is being dealt with for Medupi not being able to meet the regulations, and what about Kusile? Can it meet them, and if so why can't Medupi since they're broadly the same damn plant in different locations.

Medupi and Kusile do not have the required flue-gas desulfurisation equipment installed, which also goes against the terms of their world bank loan:

Eskom seeks to break terms of $3.75 billion World Bank loan to avoid spending on emission cuts | Business

Eskom is seeking to have the terms of a $3.75 billion World Bank loan changed to avoid spending money to cut emissions from one of its largest power plants.

www.news24.com

Yawn at it again... Cheap to build doesn't mean it's cheap to run.

Show me the operating cost of solar/renewable, that's got to be the most ignorant thing I've seen on this forum (well today, you're competing with Nic and NarrowMind).

 

[John Tempus]

Utter nonsense. On average, renewables are the cheapest source of energy. The reason why most places that are more expensive have it, is that they often invested in it before viable, e.g. California, but the cost for anything new in solar or wind is way cheaper than any other alternative. Other reasons include that they're also building out grid infrastructure etc. (Germany).

Examples where it brought down the electricity price include South Australia, note when they invested, after renewable became viable.

Solar/wind is quick to build and cheap compared to alternatives, in 5 years if IPP set-up, you could probably manage to build a good 10-20GW, government just needs to properly set up competitive contracts, waive BEE and let international also compete.

I dont disagree with you but my point is that SHUTTING down power right now breaking the economy even more while we do not have alternative power to replace the powerplants that they shut down is going to move us backwards faster than we would be able to magically overnight replace it with alternative energy.

We need the alternative energy in place first then shut down the old power stations one by one.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Medupi and Kusile do not have the required flue-gas desulfurisation equipment installed, which also goes against the terms of their world bank loan:

Eskom seeks to break terms of $3.75 billion World Bank loan to avoid spending on emission cuts | Business

Eskom is seeking to have the terms of a $3.75 billion World Bank loan changed to avoid spending money to cut emissions from one of its largest power plants.

www.news24.com

Show me the operating cost of solar/renewable, that's got to be the most ignorant thing I've seen on this forum (well today, you're competing with Nic and NarrowMind).

Hence my question of why does Medupi get singled out but not Kusile.

 

[Johnatan56]

I dont disagree with you but my point is that SHUTTING down power right now breaking the economy even more while we do not have alternative power to replace the powerplants that they shut down is going to move us backwards faster than we would be able to magically overnight replace it with alternative energy.

We need the alternative energy in place first then shut down the old power stations one by one.

Yeah, they're going to backtrack on shutting down, and will probably just keep ignoring exceeding limits, there is no alternative right now, all of this one can thank Coal Mantashe.

 

[John Tempus]

It's called a "Just Energy Transition" (JET).

Just Energy Transition (JET) - Eskom

Eskom’s Just Energy Transition (JET) Office was established earlier in 2020 and has made significant strides to progress the evolution for transition towards

www.eskom.co.za

And cleaner energy is NOT more expensive than Eskom, just consider the facts:
REIPPPP came in less than Eskom cost of coal.
Renewable creates more jobs.

According to my reading of the article:

• Eskom is asking for permission to break the law
• Eskom wants to pollute even more (for free)
• Eskom wants to cause more environmental damage and deaths (for free)
• Eskom had made minimal effort to fully comply with the standards first published in 2010.
• Eskom's Medupi is brand new and does not comply with environmental laws
• Eskom is only able to charge (not low) rates because it pollutes, else we would be paying R4.00+ per kWh
• Eskom can ask the minister to break the law - I must have read wrongly that the law is supreme in ZA.

If we consider this, then Eskom makes a pretty good case for renewables.

Cleaner energy in SA is more expensive for SA consumers and comparing it with other better industrialized countries does not hold up. All our sht is getting imported, if we had mass production using local products and we could all buy locally then perhaps it might be true but look at any solar replacement for homes even at current Eskom prices you would have to utilize your Solar replacement for the next 5 to sometimes 10 years just to breakeven.

That is not a solution for the average person.