Page 7 - AfrElec Week 07 2023
P. 7
AfrElec POLICY AfrElec
Eskom plans to increase buying electricity
from IPPs
SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s national power utility, Eskom, plant is capable of supplying to the electrical
plans to spend 18.2% more on independent grid.
power producers (IPPs) over the next five years, However, the SOE’s turnaround plan to
a local weekly Mail & Guardian (M&G) reports. recover its energy availability factor to the cur-
This represents a considerable annual rently estimated 58-60% by the end of the finan-
increase compared to the average spending rise cial year will not be achieved, De Reuter said.
in maintenance, Eskom’s outgoing chief execu- Eskom can boost its energy availability factor by
tive André de Ruyter told the National Council 10% only if it suspends the planned maintenance
of Provinces (NCOP) on January 7. of power plants.
Eskom recorded an increase to 49.2% from “The minute we do that, we will significantly We will buy
36.7% in its spending on external power pro- impact the reliability of the plant going forward,
ducers in the past year. “We will buy significantly and this is what has happened in the past. If we significantly
more electricity from IPPs as they come onto allow this to happen again, the situation will just
the grid,” said De Ruyter, who has led the state- become worse,” he said, as cited by M&G. more electricity
owned enterprise (SOE) for three years during Despite the increased spending on power
South Africa’s worsening energy crisis. producers, Eskom said that it is not cutting its from IPPs as they
Speaking to the NCOP, the CEO also out- budget for repairs and maintenance, which has come onto the
lined Eskom’s immediate to medium-term gone up “quite substantially” from 2020. Overall
solutions to increasing power outages or ‘load maintenance is forecast to grow at an annual rate grid
shedding.’ The outages are costing the country’s of 9.5%.
economy as much as ZAR899mn ($51mn) a “It makes it clear we are growing our mainte- André de Ruyter
day, according to the South African Reserve nance spending, rather than cutting back on it. Eskom CEO
Bank (SARB). This is exactly what you can expect from a fleet
Eskom plans to add 1,862 MW to the power that is ageing,” De Ruyter was quoted as saying.
grid by the end of next month by prioritising He also told the NCOP that there have been
maintenance at six power stations, De Reuter multiple successes by law enforcement agencies
said. At the centre of Eskom’s current energy to clamp down on corruption and theft. De Reu-
challenges is the decline in the energy availability ter has confirmed 25 arrests and the closure of
factor from 75% to 49%. three illegal sites where coal allocated to power
The energy availability factor is the percent- stations is replaced by lower-quality coal, causing
age of maximum energy generation that a power damage to Eskom plants, M&G reports.
Week 07 15•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P7
