{"id":471267,"date":"2022-11-25T12:16:30","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T10:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=471267"},"modified":"2022-11-25T12:21:59","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T10:21:59","slug":"eskoms-big-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/471267-eskoms-big-problems.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom’s big problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eskom is in deep trouble. Its power stations are collapsing, it has run out of money to buy diesel for its open-cycle gas turbines, and there is no coherent plan to stop load-shedding.<\/p>\n

Energy expert Chris Yelland said<\/a><\/strong> in addition to the usual random breakdowns at Eskom\u2019s power stations, units one, two, and three at Kusile will be offline for five months.<\/p>\n

A gas air heater fire at Kusile Unit five, which happened during a commissioning exercise in September, delayed its commercial operation by a year.<\/p>\n

Unit four at Medupi, which was damaged during an explosion<\/a><\/strong> because of human error, is only expected to be brought back online in late 2024.<\/p>\n

As if these own goals were not enough, Eskom has run out of money<\/a><\/strong> to buy diesel for its open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).<\/p>\n

The power utility said it had exceeded its budget for diesel for the current financial year and that it has not ordered additional diesel.<\/p>\n

Had the department of public enterprises not intervened, Eskom’s OCGTs would have been unavailable until at least 1 April 2023.<\/p>\n

Minister Pravin Gordhan’s department scrambled this week to secure 50 million litres of diesel<\/a><\/strong> from PetroSA. Payment arrangement details and information on where the money is coming from have yet to be disclosed.<\/p>\n

This diesel is reportedly not enough for a whole month, as PetroSA supplies Eskom with 60 million litres per month \u2014 and it is not the power utility’s only dealer.<\/p>\n

These OCGTs add 2,067MW to the grid and play a crucial role in safeguarding the country\u2019s electricity grid.<\/p>\n

Energy expert Professor Anton Eberhard warned<\/a><\/strong> that Eskom\u2019s decision not to refuel its OCGTs increases the risk of a system failure.<\/p>\n

Pressure on the grid is going to increase further when unit one at Koeberg is shut down on 8 December 2022 for maintenance and refuelling.<\/p>\n

The unit is anticipated to return to service in June 2023 and will remove 920MW of generation capacity from the national grid during this time.<\/p>\n

It means that there was over 6,000MW of generation capacity offline because of human error and poor planning at Eskom.<\/p>\n

The table below shows the potential generation capacity which will be offline in December.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Power Station<\/strong><\/th>\nUnit<\/strong><\/th>\nGeneration Capacity<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Medupi<\/td>\nUnit 1<\/td>\n800MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kusile<\/td>\nUnit 1<\/td>\n800MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kusile<\/td>\nUnit 2<\/td>\n800MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kusile<\/td>\nUnit 3<\/td>\n800MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kusile<\/td>\nUnit 5<\/td>\n800MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Koeberg<\/td>\nUnit 1<\/td>\n920MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
OCGT<\/td>\nNumerous<\/td>\n2,067MW<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Poor performance at Eskom<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Eskom has been pushing the narrative that most of its problems are caused by years of neglect and a lack of maintenance during the Zuma years.<\/p>\n

Eskom CEO Andr\u00e9 de Ruyter has also blamed some of his predecessors for the poor state of the power stations.<\/p>\n

The reality is that most of the problems, including explosions and fires that caused the prolonged outages, happened under De Ruyter\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

There is also no coherent plan to improve the quality of maintenance and prevent catastrophic events from happening.<\/p>\n

When De Ruyter took the reigns at Eskom, he promised South Africans that load-shedding would be significantly reduced from September 2021.<\/p>\n

He said they were doing extensive maintenance to improve the reliability of their power plants.<\/p>\n

When load-shedding became worse after September 2021, Eskom changed the narrative and said they needed more generation capacity to limit load-shedding.<\/p>\n

Eskom has enough generation capacity to serve South Africa, but the company is performing so poorly that nearly half of this generation capacity is offline.<\/p>\n

It is as if Eskom has given up on trying to fix the mess and accepted that an energy availability factor (EAF) of just above 50% is the new norm.<\/p>\n

The list below gives a summary of events that happened under De Ruyter\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n