Page 8 - AsianOil Week 29 2020

AfrElec ESKOM AfrElec

Eskom seeks consultants

to drive forward reform

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Eskom is seeking to appoint The company said on July 22 that its grid was
consultants to advise on major reforms that will “under severe pressure,” and urged consumers
see it split up into three entities in a bid to save to turn off “all unnecessary lights, geysers, pool
the company from bankruptcy and to improve pumps and non-essential appliances.”
performance. For example, Eskom limited supplies from
The government in 2019 published its road 17:00 to 21:00 on July 22 in various areas of Mpu-
map to create separate transmission, generation malanga and Gauteng provinces.
and distribution units. The winter months have seen the state-owned
Transmission would run the national grid, power utility battle with increased consumption,
while the generation and distribution would which has in some cases led to the overloading
compete with privately owned operators in lib- of its system.
erated free markets. Earlier in the year, CEO Andre de Ruyter had
Eskom is also seeking advice on mining and expressed the hope that the utility might be able
how to prioritise its budget allocation, according to restrict load-shedding to just three days dur-
to documents accompanying a request for pro- ing the winter.
posals (RfP) that closes August 20, Bloomberg This follows the country’s lockdown, which
reported. was imposed in March. This effectively reduced
Eskom has debts amounting to ZAR454bn power demand, allowing Eskom to undertake
($27bn) and is been reliant on government bail- maintenance.
outs to meet its running costs. However, as power demand rises again,
Eskom also said it was looking to appoint Eskom is again not able to meet demand.
consultants that would advise on raising green Eskom said this week that the overloading
finance, as the company has already accepted of networks leads to damage to the electricity
that it must promote renewables and lessen its infrastructure through explosions in overloaded
dependence on coal, its dominant generating transformers and mini-substations.
fuel. Another problem is the number of ille-
It has carried out rolling national blackouts, gal connections in some urban areas, which
known in South Africa as load-shedding, this also put heavy loads onto inadequate grid
winter because of plant breakdowns. infrastructure.™

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