No-win situation for Eskom

[The Darkness]

Remove majority power from the ANC & implement regulations and laws for IPP's to build and run localised power generation. It's a simple problem we have here in SA; consumers want and need power and are willing to pay for it.

 

[Lupus]

Ah so they eventually did the conversion? When Dedisa and Avon started up a few years ago I remember them saying they would use diesel initially but with a possible future conversion to conversion to gas-fired, seemed pretty vague at the time.

Nope they've not done it yet

 

[DapperDanMan]

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/06/ele...o-could-double-in-2-years-how-to-play-it.html

Eskom will now die even sooner!

(Or we will get less of the AI pie than other countries will.)

 

[Sinbad]

They can't afford to have loadshedding, because they make less money, so instead they burn diesel at a R7/kWh loss?

I mean... if you say so...

The cost to the economy of higher stages of load shedding is much higher than the cost of the diesel.

 

[porchrat]

The cost to the economy of higher stages of load shedding is much higher than the cost of the diesel.

The cost to the economy is not Eskom's concern, it's the government's concern. Eskom's concern is to function responsibility and sustainably as a company. The government isn't the one steadily providing the budget for the diesel spend. Instead Eskom needs to beg for bailouts and tariff hikes to recoup costs years later that it may or may not get.

If the government were immediately paying for the extra diesel being burnt each month I'd agree with you.

 

[Sinbad]

The cost to the economy is not Eskom's concern, it's the government's concern. Eskom's concern is to function responsibility and sustainably as a company. The government isn't the one steadily providing the budget for the diesel spend. Instead Eskom needs to beg for bailouts and tariff hikes to recoup costs years later that it may or may not get.

If the government were immediately paying for the extra diesel being burnt each month I'd agree with you.

They are paying for it via bailouts, loans, and price increases.

Don't forget, you pay for the government's expenses.

 

[porchrat]

They are paying for it via bailouts, loans, and price increases.

Don't forget, you pay for the government's expenses.

They pay it eventually, and never to a level that actually covers Eskom's expenses (as evidenced by the constant running at a loss thing with ever-increasing debt... something that could be immediately avoided if they stopped the diesel burn).

As I said: if the government were simply handing over RXbn at the end of each month to cover Eskom's diesel spend for that month I'd understand, but we both know that's not how it works. Eskom has to fight to recover a portion of that spend and it shouldn't have to if it's doing this for the good of the economy. It's certainly not doing this for the good of its balance sheet.