There is still hope for the energy and electricity sectors of South Africa

[mylesillidge]

All hope is not lost

In the energy and electricity sectors of South Africa, there is much that could be done and should be done, that is not being done.

On the bright side, this should be a cause for some optimism, as it points to the massive opportunities that are within our grasp.

 

[My_King]

*Looks at who is in charge...

LoL, there is still hope they say

 

[Solitude]

**** that. All hope is lost.

When we don't have loadshedding we have power outages. Stupid shithole country.

 

[Pythonista]

You fail to mention that the so-called Justice system (right up to ConCourt) actively protects municipalities who default - witness the forced return of bank accounts to Umfuleni.

 

[Paul_S]

For the AdR haters like @epah:
Notice that the problem started before AdR and the trend didn't really increase with him as CEO - it merely followed the trajectory already set in motion by previous events.

 

[konfab]

You fail to mention that the so-called Justice system (right up to ConCourt) actively protects municipalities who default - witness the forced return of bank accounts to Umfuleni.

Concourt was protecting residents and businesses who were paying for electricity. Would be b.s if they were cut off because the d!ckwads in the municpality vote for a bunch of criminals who pocket the money instead of paying Eskom.

But their remedy was garbage. The simple solution is that if a municipality defaults on its payments to Eskom, the court should transfer control over the electricity distribution to Eskom.

 

[zolly]

For the AdR haters like @epah:
Notice that the problem started before AdR and the trend didn't really increase with him as CEO - it merely followed the trajectory already set in motion by previous events.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the massive spike in 2022 loadshedding was caused by RET-aligned saboteurs who were trying to ruin CR's chances of getting re-elected, and then once their man was in place, poof, suddenly the plants are working better again.

 

[Temujin]

April already... sheesh time flies, feels like christmas was just a week ago

 

[freematrix]

Help us Obi-Wan....

 

[ShaunSA]

The man who was in charge of Eskom's war room is now running the country

Yep still plenty of hope

 

[Paul_S]

View attachment 1451985

I also wouldn't be surprised if the massive spike in 2022 loadshedding was caused by RET-aligned saboteurs who were trying to ruin CR's chances of getting re-elected, and then once their man was in place, poof, suddenly the plants are working better again.

One thing to note is that EAF and the number of GWh of load shedding (or hours of rolling blackouts) are not a 1:1 relationship. As the EAF drops it reduces the margin for dealing with issues like units tripping or removing windows of opportunity for performing maintenance. Eskom also ran into the new situation where they ran out of money/diesel to run the OCGT fleet which hasn't happened before.

EAF is a good measure of the health of the generation fleet - rolling blackouts and lost GWh of production are just the symptoms. Since the EAF doesn't appear to have even bottomed out yet I can only assume that rolling blackouts will get worse this year. None of the Eskom CEOs seem to be able to arrest the decline.

 

[Forum Reader]

For the AdR haters like @epah:
Notice that the problem started before AdR and the trend didn't really increase with him as CEO - it merely followed the trajectory already set in motion by previous events.

View attachment 1451969

Don't think people hate him. Many of us just don't get why people are defending him. Nothing improved regarding provision of electricity and load shedding was the worst ever by far.

 

[zolly]

Don't think people hate him. Many of us just don't get why people are defending him. Nothing improved regarding provision of electricity and load shedding was the worst ever by far.

He massively reduced Eskom's debt, which in turn saves us money.

R90bn in 18 months - Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter's colossal debt reduction

Just 18 months in hot seat and Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has reduced debt by over R90bn - remarkable, but there's still R400bn to pay back.

www.biznews.com

Also continued to clamp down on corruption and increased maintenance.

Less than 3 years at the helm: De Ruyter's mission impossible - and how it came crashing down | News24

Nothing could have prepared André de Ruyter for what he found at Eskom when he took over as chief executive officer in January 2020.

www.news24.com

While nothing improved in the short term, there are factors outside of his control that affected that. See delaying of IPPs, sabotage, Gwede Mantashe etc.

In the long term, I think his plan would have worked, but when your bosses don't have your back... well, I quit when I was treated like kak by management and I didn't even have a fraction of the stress he had to deal with.

 

[Forum Reader]

He massively reduced Eskom's debt, which in turn saves us money.

R90bn in 18 months - Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter's colossal debt reduction

Just 18 months in hot seat and Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has reduced debt by over R90bn - remarkable, but there's still R400bn to pay back.

www.biznews.com

Also continued to clamp down on corruption and increased maintenance.

Less than 3 years at the helm: De Ruyter's mission impossible - and how it came crashing down | News24

Nothing could have prepared André de Ruyter for what he found at Eskom when he took over as chief executive officer in January 2020.

www.news24.com

While nothing improved in the short term, there are factors outside of his control that affected that. See delaying of IPPs, sabotage, Gwede Mantashe etc.

In the long term, I think his plan would have worked, but when your bosses don't have your back... well, I quit when I was treated like kak by management and I didn't even have a fraction of the stress he had to deal with.

How exactly does the debt reduction save us money? Electricity prices continue to go up. They want a 30%+ increase this year. The amount spent on inverters/batteries/solar cost us a lot.

I'd rather have the taxpayer bailout where every taxpayer pays and we have electricity, than having to spend a bunch myself on backup power.

The other stuff doesn't matter since there were no visible results. Power production got worse.

 

[Paul_S]

How exactly does the debt reduction save us money? Electricity prices continue to go up. They want a 30%+ increase this year. The amount spent on inverters/batteries/solar cost us a lot.

If Eskom does not reduce it's debt and it continues growing then they'll keep needing massive tariff increases to keep up with the repayments on their loans. Ever heard of a debt spiral?

I'd rather have the taxpayer bailout where every taxpayer pays and we have electricity, than having to spend a bunch myself on backup power.

The tax payer is going to bail out Eskom regardless but if Eskom's debt is not brought under control the tax payer will eventually be unable to cover Eskom's growing debt.

 

[zolly]

The other stuff doesn't matter since there were no visible results. Power production got worse.

Short term production got worse. Much like chemo makes a cancer patient sick before they get better.

The other points you raised were already answered by Paul_S so not going to rehash those.

 

[Benedict A55h0le]

Short term production got worse. Much like chemo makes a cancer patient sick before they get better.

Or in most cases die, like what Eskom is doing. Eskom will effectively die, but people will be paying for this failure for many decades.

 

[WollieVerstege]

How exactly does the debt reduction save us money? Electricity prices continue to go up. They want a 30%+ increase this year. The amount spent on inverters/batteries/solar cost us a lot.

I'd rather have the taxpayer bailout where every taxpayer pays and we have electricity, than having to spend a bunch myself on backup power.

The other stuff doesn't matter since there were no visible results. Power production got worse.

It is about credit worthiness.

The higher Eskom's debt is, the higher the risk, the higher the interest they get charged on loans. So the less interest you get charged, the less future increase should be. If Eskom can get charged only 0.05% less on their debt it is a saving of 10's of millions of Rands

 

[zoozi]

Cute man, check this guy all positive that the corrupt neanderthals that put us in this mess will fix it .
Pretty alarming that a MyBB tech journo is smarter than those in charge.
Ja no, its ****ed, its not just Eskom, the entire infrastructure is collapsing. JHB has water issues with incessant rain. Durban is finished. EC will hit day zero at some point. Rail systems ****ed.
Are they fixing or planning to fix this too?
Freedom fighters can't run a complicated government, klaar. A potential ANC replacement like ActionSA will take on the same deep rooted collosal systems of corruption along with forming alliances with corrupt parties, they've already started with their dodgy candidate campaign promises. The DA's not taking majority in a black majority population. GG!

 

[dawuwan]

Well researched post. Thank you Chris for enlightening us