PRETORIA – Eskom board member Mteto Nyati says the power utility and its board are working hard on five key priorities to improve power plant performance and reduce load shedding as soon as possible. He was speaking during a media briefing on Thursday to update South Africans on the challenges facing the power utility.
Nyati said there are priorities that require day-to-day focus, while others require a “slightly more strategic” approach by the utility.
Among the five priorities is the 24-month power restoration plan, which has two key elements.
“The first [element] is to ensure that we maintain and monitor the performance of the current flagship power plants. There are four power plants that are performing very well [and] it is very important that we take care of these power plants. Secondly, we need to make sure that we focus on the six biggest power plants where we continue to have problems [and] that we have a thorough maintenance programme for those six biggest power plants. It is important that we continue to focus on this plan and stick to it,” Nyati said.
The second priority for the board is planned and unplanned outages, including Koeberg unit 1 – with a generation capacity of about 920 MW – and the three units of the Kusile power plant, which have been offline since October, losing about 2 160 MW of generation capacity.
“In terms of Koeberg 1, which is a planned outage and has been running on schedule until now, it is important that we deliver and bring the power plant back when it is supposed to come back because it will bring a significant level of stability that we need.
“The unplanned outages of Kusile 1, 2, and 3… so far, we see that some of them will not be available for another year or so. It is important that we look for ways and means to speed up the repair of these plants. It may be that exemptions are needed. We as a board need to look for ways and means to get these exemptions,” Nyati said.
He revealed that Eskom’s “people and culture” are another top priority for the board.
“The majority of Eskom staff are great people who do exceptional work and are committed to this company and also to the country. It is important that we continue to support them so that they can help us implement this turnaround plan.
“It is also important that we find ways and means to incentivise them to continue to do what is required while this? planned maintenance is being carried out,” Nyati said.
Another priority for the board is to procure diesel for Eskom’s open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs), which are critical to prevent at least one phase of load shedding.
“We cannot afford to run out of funds for diesel during this period. We as a board, together with management, are looking at ways and means to ensure that we have the funds because the operation of these [OCGTs] is important for us to be able to reduce the extent or phases of load shedding,” he said.
Nyati stressed that working with the government is another high priority for the power utility.
“Government support is so important for us to create an environment where we are able to create and negotiate new capacity. Engaging with various stakeholders in government on behalf of management is something we prioritise,” he said.
Meanwhile, the load shedding is expected to be downgraded to Level 4 from Friday and further de-escalated to Level 3 on Saturday.
This, is after Eskom, extended power cuts to Level 6 and Level 5 this week following outages at several power stations.
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