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Eskom warns of more power cuts

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Eskom said on September 2 Eskom also said that another key factor that
that it had raised its load-shedding programme needed to be considered was the fact that the
to Stage 4, as the company was forced to take building of Medupi was contrary to how other
power stations offline in order to prevent the projects are approached around the world.
grid collapsing. “Globally projects are not built the way
Eskom said that the power system was Eskom approached Medupi, but are built one
severely constrained, and that cold winter unit a time. Ideally in the South African context,
weather was placing extra demand on the grid. a comprehensively defined greenfield project
The company said that unplanned break- should take approximately 5 years in develop-
downs now amounted to 11,300 MW, and that ment,” it said.
5,040 MW was offline for planned maintenance. “The results of poor pre-planning due to late
It said that it had successfully returned a gen- start decisions are detrimental to project execu-
eration unit each at the Tutuka, Komati, Hend- tion. Repeatability and forward planning can
rina and Camden power stations. Two additional produce better cost and schedule certainty.”
units, however, had suffered breakdowns at the Eskom said that it had recognised from the
Matla and Kriel power stations. beginning of the new-build programme that
Meanwhile, Eskom officials told the South there were not enough engineers who could
African Parliament that load-shedding could adequately execute “Medupi, Kusile, Return to
continue until 2022. Service Units and Gas projects at the same time.”
In a written submission to Parliament’s Stand- Eskom also pointed to corruption in the
ing Committee on Appropriations, the company building process. For example, a former Kus-
also explained while construction of the Medupi ile senior manager was arrested for allegedly
and Kusile coal-fired power plants was way receiving millions from a ZARR45mn ($43mn)
behind schedule. contract.
While Medupi is set to be completed at the “Delays [have been] caused as a result of
end of 2020, work on the Kusile power station modifications to critical contracts not being pos-
will be done in 2023. sible due to these contractors being investigated
The power utility has cited unforeseen cir- for alleged corruption,” it said.
cumstances as part of the reason it incurred cost Indeed, Eskom itself is to take the Gupta
overruns. Those include strike action, which in family to court for to recoup at least ZARR3.8bn
total has lasted 18 months. Eskom has also said ($212mn) from former Eskom directors, execu-
there were welding issues which had led to an tives, contractors and consultants, and a former
eight-month delay. government minister.
“Given the inadequate time to plan, absence The action is being taken by current Eskom
of suitable resources in the country (in quantum management, which claims that people close to
and skill) and other consequential issues, Eskom, the Gupta family and companies it ran siphoned
in an overly optimistic way, endeavoured to off the cash during their purchase in 2015 of
manage a programme of this magnitude for the Optimum Coal Holdings (OCH), a major coal
benefit of the country,” the utility added. supplier to Eskom, from Glencore.™

Week 35 03•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7