Page 4 - AfrElec Week 04 2023

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec

Eskom’s challenges point to

tremendous opportunities in South

Africa’s electricity sector, energy

expert says

South Africa’s energy crisis did not suddenly appear out of nowhere. The unsustainable

financial, operational and environmental position of the SOE Eskom has been apparent

for many years

SOUTH AFRICA THE substantial challenges that South Afri- unserved energy resulting from 1,153 hours of
ca’s struggling national power utility Eskom power cuts in 2021.
WHAT: faces could lead to significant opportunities The indefinite declaration of load shedding
The challenges facing in addressing some of them, according to EE (power outages) of up to 12 hours a day that
Eskom could lead to Business Intelligence managing director Chris Eskom announced on January 10 is seen by ana-
significant opportunities. Yelland. lysts as extremely damaging to businesses and
“In the energy and electricity sectors of South the economy.
WHY: Africa, there is much that could be done and
South Africa’s energy should be done that is not being done. On the Farmers among hardest hit
crisis has been years in bright side, this should be a cause for some opti- While there is hardly an industry not being ham-
the running. mism, as it points to the massive opportunities mered by the electricity crisis, the agriculture
that are within our grasp,” writes Yelland. sector is arguably among the hardest hit, due to
WHAT NEXT: the concurrent impacts of fuel price hikes and
Years of economic decline Escalating crisis other crises.
will result from South South Africa’s energy crisis did not suddenly According to AgriSA executive director
Africa’s failure to address appear out of nowhere. The unsustainable finan- Christo van der Rheede, the current high stages
these problems. cial, operational and environmental position of of load shedding are having a devastating impact
the state-owned enterprise (SOE) Eskom has on the agriculture sector, and this poses the risk
been apparent for many years. of destabilising the country as a whole.
The power utility, which provides more than “The agriculture sector plays a critical role
90% of South Africa’s electricity, has been failing in terms of food security and ensuring that the
to meet domestic demand since 2008. The heav- country remains stable,” Van der Rheede said,
ily-indebted SOE imposed a record 205 days of adding that the sector is reliant on electricity as
rolling blackouts in 2022 as its old and poorly well as diesel for the production, harvesting and
maintained coal-fired plants continued to break processing of agricultural produce.
down. Without food, he said, people will go on a
Eskom’s poor operational performance is rampage and will certainly resort to violence,
indicated by the declining energy availability which will lead to social instability, which can
factor (EAF) of the utility’s fleet of coal-fired and have a devastating impact on law and order in
nuclear-powered base-supply generators, which the country.
in the final weeks of 2022 dropped significantly “It is for this reason that we have engaged with
below 50%. Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Develop-
Data from the renowned load-shedding ment Minister Thoko Didiza and we really want
app EskomSePush shows that the SOE failed to to commend her for her role in taking our issues
deliver an estimated 11,797GWh of energy dur- to Cabinet, so people can understand the need
ing 3,775 hours of rolling power cuts in 2022, for a more adaptive approach in terms of apply-
some 4.73 times higher than the 2,496 GWh of ing load shedding to the sector,” he explained.

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