\u201cWe have everything within our arsenal to resolve load-shedding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Given the power stations\u2019 energy availability factor (EAF), Hendrina, Tutuka, and Kusile are Eskom\u2019s best hope to eliminate load-shedding.<\/p>\n
Cumulatively, the three power stations have an installed capacity of 8,854MW (excluding Kusile\u2019s Units 5 and 6 which are yet to be operational). This is equivalent to eight load-shedding stages.<\/p>\n
Below is an overview of the current state of each power station and the viability of improving their EAF.<\/p>\n
\n
Hendrina Power Station<\/h2>\n
Hendrina is one of South Africa\u2019s oldest operating power stations, having come into operation in the 1970s. It is also one of the smallest stations in the coal fleet.<\/p>\n
It has ten 200MW units installed and, therefore, has the capacity to produce 2,000MW of electricity.<\/p>\n
However, the electricity minister said Hendrina is in a \u201cvery, very difficult state\u201d, as at least four units are currently out of operation.<\/p>\n
According to Eskom statistics from earlier this year, Hendrina recorded\u00a0the worst EAF of Eskom\u2019s 14 coal-fired power stations. Hendrina\u2019s average output is 197MW, making its EAF 17.9%.<\/p>\n
Ramokgopa said it would require \u201celevated effort\u201d to improve Hendrina\u2019s performance and return its units to operation.<\/p>\n
He said Eskom is working with the station\u2019s management and thinks they \u201ccould be in a position to extract as many megawatts as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the end of last year, Eskom announced its\u00a0plans\u00a0to decommission and repurpose<\/a><\/strong> three of its coal-fired power plants, including Hendrina.<\/p>\n This plan forms part of the utility\u2019s Just Energy Transition Strategy to shift toward green energy. It involves fully shutting down seven power stations within the next ten years.<\/p>\n The Hendrina power station in Mpumalanga is the oldest operating in the country. Energy analyst Mike Rossouw believes stations like Hendrina should be shut down<\/a><\/strong> as Eskom workers and money would be more effectively used elsewhere.<\/p><\/div>\n Tutuka was commissioned in 1985, and its last unit went online in July 1990.<\/p>\n It has six units capable of producing 609MW each and, therefore, has a total installed capacity of 3,654MW.<\/p>\n However, it is one of Eskom\u2019s worst-performing power stations, with an average output of 1,170MW.<\/p>\n Ramokgopa has identified Tutuka as Eskom\u2019s second most problematic power station, coming in just after Kusile, which has yet to become fully operational.<\/p>\n He said Tutuka is plagued with two significant\u00a0problems<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 poor quality coal and procurement irregularities related to corruption.<\/p>\n For years, Tutuka has been riddled with\u00a0corruption\u00a0that has affected its output, cost the country millions, and intensified the electricity crisis.<\/p>\n At the end of last year, Eskom reported that Tutuka\u2019s EAF was 28%<\/a><\/strong>. However, former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has said that Tutuka has an EAF closer to 15%.<\/p>\n Both figures show a significant decrease from the station\u2019s performance just a few years ago when it boasted an EAF of 75%.<\/p>\n Despite Tutuka\u2019s problems, the electricity minister has hope that all six of its units could be \u201cup and running\u201d by the end of April. This would restore 3,000MW to the grid and\u00a0eliminate three load-shedding stages<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Kusile is expected to be one of the world\u2019s largest coal-fired power plants, with a plan to have six units and a total installed capacity of 4,800MW.<\/p>\n Construction on Kusile started in 2008 and was expected to take around six years to complete. However, its first unit only came into operation in 2017, and its fourth only reached commercial operation last year<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The last two units \u2014 Units 5 and 6 \u2014 have not been commercially operational.<\/p>\n Kusile has been riddled with problems that have postponed its full commercial operation dates numerous times.<\/p>\n Ramokgopa has identified Kusile as Eskom\u2019s worst-performing power station.<\/p>\n The former Eskom CEO said in an\u00a0interview with eNCA that an allegedly corrupt tender awarded to Hitachi Power Africa<\/a><\/strong> is to blame for Kusile\u2019s poor performance.<\/p>\n He said a\u00a0R38 billion tender\u00a0given to Hitachi to provide Kusile and Medupi Power Station with boiler units resulted in three of Kusile\u2019s four units being taken offline.<\/p>\n Ramokgopa has\u00a0dismissed\u00a0De Ruyter\u2019s claim<\/a><\/strong> that corruption is to blame, attributing Kusile\u2019s poor performance to technical and structural problems at the power station.<\/p>\n Regardless of the reason, three units are still out of operation at Kusile, and the power station has an average output of only 713MW \u2014 an EAF\u00a0of 24.7%.<\/p>\n Ramokgopa intends to have the three out-of-operation units and Unit 5 in operation by the end of the year. This would add 3,200MW capacity to the grid, eliminating three load-shedding stages.<\/p>\n Kusile was recently granted an\u00a0environmental exemption<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0allowing the power station to operate without a damaged component needed to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions.<\/p>\n Ramokgopa told\u00a0eNCA<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that this exemption would enable Eskom to return the out-of-operation units to the grid before the end of the year.<\/p>\n Kusile power station flue ducts<\/p><\/div>\n A version of this article was first published by Daily Investor<\/a><\/strong> and is republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says three existing Eskom power stations present the best opportunity to take South Africa out of load-shedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341123,"featured_media":484895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80335],"tags":[61891,35,78500,84835,28037,71396],"class_list":["post-487353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-andre-de-ruyter","tag-headline","tag-hendrina","tag-kgosientsho-ramokgopa","tag-kusile-power-station","tag-tutuka-power-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487365,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487353\/revisions\/487365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Hendrina-power-station-800x533.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nTutuka Power Station<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Eskom-Tutuka-power-station-800x533.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKusile Power Station<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kusile-WFGD--800x533.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nNow read:\u00a0Names of corrupt Eskom officials handed to Minister Pravin Gordhan<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"