Eskom pulls the plug on Southern Africa
The beleaguered utility, which generates 95% of its electricity for local use, exports surplus power to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe — countries which will now no longer be fed from SA’s troubled grid.
Speaking to Business Times on Friday, Eskom’s chief executive Jacob Maroga said export power was reduced whenever SA faced a shortage — but added that local consumers needed to save as much as 20% of consumption to ease the problem.
Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, which are also supplied by the parastatal, face partial cuts in their supply as the power company tries to alleviate the effect on SA consumers.
Ironically, Eskom is in talks with Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo to buy electricity from power- generation projects the two countries have planned.
The Mozambican projects alone are expected to generate more than 2100MW, some of which Eskom will be able to acquire.
Maroga said reduced supplies to neighbouring countries depended on the severity of the crisis in South Africa — and he has faced a barrage from hundreds of thousands of angry South Africans who have been subjected to multiple blackouts this week.
Eskom has also warned that the blackouts will continue in the week ahead. South Africa’s peak demand has reached 36700MW, while Eskom is able to supply 38500W.
But Maroga explained that to effectively cope with this demand and for the power cuts to ease, Eskom has to shed 1500MW and build a reserve capacity.
This reserve, designed to cater for unexpected surges in demand, is internationally kept at about 15% of total demand. Eskom’s has been reduced to about 8%, which is insufficient for reliable supply.
Power cuts were introduced to prevent the system from crashing.
As part of its more than R720- billion plan to increase capacity over the long term, Eskom is in talks with two international nuclear power giants to boost the generation capacity at Koeberg. It is also planning to build new nuclear power stations.
Either France’s Areva or the US-based Westinghouse will start construction by 2010 and the first new station will be operational by 2016.
For now though, businesses are losing millions of rands, with some of them facing financial disaster.
The Killarney Mall in Johannesburg was hit by five power cuts between last Friday and Wednesday, and tenants lost more than 12 hours of trading.
Kathy Norton, the mall’s assistant manager, said the owners were looking at acquiring additional generators.
Mining companies, banking and retail groups, restaurants and shopping centres have already spent millions of rands on industrial generators to keep their operations running.
Deon Pohl, Absa’s IT facilities manager, said the bank now had more than 180 industrial generators as part of a massive roll- out that cost about R62-million.
“Since the first blackouts in the Western Cape in May 2006 we have embarked on a national roll-out of generators and Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS),” he said. “These are special devices that help in the event of power cuts and enable a branch to shut down its IT system without losing any data.”
But he was unable to say how much the power cuts had cost the bank so far, saying: “At this stage it is virtually impossible to measure.”
Nedbank, which also plans to acquire more generators, is spending about R385000 at each of its branches countrywide.
Discovery Health, which spent R30-million on generators and UPS units, puts the cost of running these at around R16000 for every hour the power is out.
First National Bank is spending R88-million on generators at its branches according to head of infrastructure and development, Kabelo Monchusi.
Federated Hospitality Association of SA chief executive Brett Duncan described the situation as “unacceptable” and a massive blow to tourism.
“The major problem for me is when hotels and restaurants are forced to close down, it’ll result in job losses,” said Duncan.
Richard Drinkrow, owner of Mainstream Refrigeration, said supermarkets were throwing out tons of ruined stock.
“When the power is out and they can’t get the refrigeration running, within about 25 minutes that stock has to be condemned,” he said.
Drinkrow’s business in the Western Cape has been operating around the clock dealing with a flood of maintenance contracts caused by the power cuts.
Africa’s largest food retailer, Shoprite , has generators that supply power for limited periods to keep fridges, freezers and pay points operating, but no baking or cooking can be done during power outages.
Pick n Pay’s director of property and operations, Izak Joubert, said the company’s generators ran a certain percentage of the store’s lighting and checkouts.
Milk Producers Organisation of SA chief executive Bertus de Jongh said that while many large-scale farmers had invested in generators to preserve their produce, smaller farmers would not be able not afford the added expense.
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