Another headache for Eskom
Mar 11 2008 3:24PM
Johannesburg - Eskom, struggling to fix a severe power crisis, faces another headache in trucking urgently needed coal to power stations on crumbling and heavily used roads.
Eskom said it will take 900 trucks to get the 45 million tonnes of extra coal the utility needs over the next two years to exlusively feed its power stations in coal-rich Mpumalanga, which has some of the country's worst roads.
The quality of the coal and getting it to Eskom's coal-fed power stations, which are concentrated in Mpumalanga, are among Eskom's biggest worries in the power crisis.
"Most of our additional coal will be trucked which means unfortunately road transport and that's a big factor, with the damage on the road," Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said.
"It's logistically challenging, particularly in bad weather when the roads are wet. This is not a simple exercise. It means another 900 trucks on the road in Mpumalanga which is a huge amount."
Provincial roads have suffered the same fate as Eskom, experts say, in which years of underinvestment culminated in widespread supply shortages in January, shutting the mines in Africa's largest economy and slashing coal exports.
"Exactly what is happening in Eskom is happening in the roads," Malcolm Mitchell, executive director of the South African Road Federation, an association of road-sector professionals, told Reuters.
