Page 5 - AfrElec Week 31 2022

AfrElec POLICY AfrElec

SA government to assume

part of Eskom’s debt

SOUTH Africa’s government has formally solar systems and transform the electricity sec-
SOUTH AFRICA decided to take over part of the debt of power tor and positioning it for future sustainability.
utility Eskom, a minister has said, according to The utility has an installed capacity to pro-
Reuters. duce 46,000MW, 80% of it, coal-fired. The coun-
The company owes $24bn and has, for many try’s peak consumption is about 32,000MW.
years, been failing to pay off its obligations. However, only 60% of the nameplate capacity
However, Finance Minister, Enoch Godong- is available at any given time due to some units
wana told a media conference on August 1 that going through planned maintenance and others
the decision had been taken but discussions on having unplanned outages as most of them are
the portion that the government will assume are 35-plus years old and getting inefficient.
underway. Minister in the presidency, Mondli Gun-
“It’s an accepted issue ... that debt for Eskom gubele, said six power stations whose mainte-
is unsustainable,” the news agency cited him as nance will be prioritised, have been identified,
saying. according to News24, a local publication.
“It poses a risk to the sovereign, to avoid that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan,
sovereign risk the sovereign has got to step in. shared that Eskom intends to fund its mainte-
What has not been settled yet ... is the quantum nance internally first. “My view is that Eskom
of that, how much will be taken by the sover- must find the cash within its own resources, and
eign, but the principle is there. At the moment then we will see what needs to be done,” said
both (National) Treasury officials and Eskom Gordhan, under whose portfolio Eskom falls.
officials are developing scenarios which we will Dealing with overpricing by suppliers, he
table before cabinet.” said, can help Eskom save much money.
Godogwana is a member of an energy crisis His ministry will seek approval to immedi-
committee that President Cyril Ramaphosa cre- ately buy up to 1,600MW of surplus electricity
ated after he unveiled a multi-pronged strategy generation that it says could be available from
on July 25 to tackle the severe electricity short- existing independent power producers and pri-
age in the country. vate local businesses with their own generation
Ramaphosa said the focus would be to capacity, Mining Weekly noted on August 1.
improve the performance of Eskom’s existing Gordhan said between 100MW to 200MW
fleet of power stations, accelerate the procure- more could be bought in the short-term from
ment of new generation capacity, increase pri- Botswana and Zambia while a further 150MW
vate investment in generation capacity, enable of gas-fired electricity could be secured from
businesses and households to invest in rooftop Mozambique.™

Week 31 04•August•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5