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Eskom declares force majeure on IPP wind
SOUTH AFRICA
ESKOM has declared force majeure on power supplies from wind IPPs, prompting the project operators themselves to claim the decision was unilateral and taken without any prior warning or consultation.
The South African Wind Energy Association (SAWEA) said in a statement that Eskom had failed to communicate with the wind sector prior to issuing the notices, and that it would be taking legal advice on the matter.
“It is concerning that wind energy power pro- ducers have not been given an opportunity to engage on this matter with Eskom, despite both Eskom and government confirming that opera- tional IPPs are in fact an essential service just five days ago,” said the association.
The decision covers 22 wind farms across the company accounting for 1,980 MW of capacity.
SAWEA chief executive Ntombifuthi Ntuli said the industry would meet with Eskom to find a “constructive resolution that does not prejudice thecountrynorthepowerproducers.”
Eskom insisted that it would pay compensa- tion for the downtime, although it did not say how much.
Eskom has said that power usage has dropped from 9,000 MW to 7,500 MW since the lock- down came into effect, with people forced to stay at home and many non-essential businesses shutting.
Of critical importance for Eskom’s struggling generation and transmission infrastructure is the closure of many mining and other indus- trial operations, which were major users of its electricity.
This meant that Eskom was able to announce
that it would be not be imposing any load-shed- ding during the current three-week lockdown.
Eskom also said that the lower demand meant that it could meet its immediate maintenance needs.
Eskom said that whilst it was taking advan- tage of the lockdown to push ahead with main- tenance, it was unable to begin any long-term capital projects.
However, Eskom spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha said that the company had not yet carried out any long-term maintenance projects, saying that it was a lost chance for the utility.
This came after many critics of the utility won- dered why it could not use the current period of low demand to make crucial improvements,
“We have doubled planned maintenance. This is the maintenance that can be done immediately. We doubled it to over 9 000 MW of planned maintenance because demand has dropped enough for us to conduct this mainte- nance,” said Mantshantsha.
However, larger projects that would normally take months would not begin.
“There are parts of the station that need to be ordered and that would take nine months to get in. What we are not able to do is the long-term planned maintenance, where we would have to bring in equipment and items from the manu- facturers in the United States and Asia.
“It is a lost opportunity. This is an emergency. Nobody knew we would have the gap for this equipment to arrive. Long-term maintenance is not something you can do at a snap of a finger and it’s there,” said Mantshantsha.™
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