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Life imitating art at power utility Eskom

26th May 2017

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy

     

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There is a most wonderful musical, A Little Night Music, which is based on a film by Ingmar Bergen, Smiles of a Summer Night. Probably the very best known song from A Little Night Music is Send in the Clowns. The last lines of the song are: “And where are the clowns? / Quick, send in the clowns / Don’t bother / They’re here . . .”

The recent events around State-owned power utility Eskom and its CEOs are reminiscent of the last lines of the above song. Taken as a continuum, the situation is this: Once upon a time, Brian Molefe, CEO of Eskom, denied that he had anything to do with an Indian immigrant family, allowing them to pay for a coal mine supplying Eskom power stations. Offended by press and Public Protector reports, he resigned to “clear his name”. He was awarded a R30-million pension payout and subsequently sworn in as a Member of Parliament. After his departure, his place was taken by Matshela Koko. Shortly thereafter, it was learned that Koko’s stepdaughter was the director of a firm which had benefited from Eskom contracts worth R1-billion. Koko ordered her to resign as a director.

As acting CEO, Koko was part of a decision to shut down five power stations, namely Hendrina, Kriel, Komati, Grootvlei and Camden. He said that something had to give because, on a single day, we have 4 000 MW of surplus electricity. If we continue to add more capacity, we can only dispense with coal because, by law, renewables are a ‘must take’. Shutting down the five stations reduces capacity by 8 624 MW and the ‘4 000 MW surplus’ is reduced to a 4 624 MW deficit, which would have to be taken up by renewable energy. At present, there is only about 2 000 MW of renewable energy supplying the grid in daytime and if the wind blows. To add another 2 000 MW, they will have to get their skates on pretty snappy.

Closing the power stations has happened before. In a burst of enthusiasm, Komati, Grootvlei and Camden were mothballed in 1990, since Eskom had a surplus of power. In a classic ‘left hand knows not that the right hand exists’, Eskom then offered an aluminium smelting company 2 000 MW at one-fifth of the supply cost, which, together with the shutdown of power stations, resulted in a nationwide shortage of power. This resulted in load- shedding. Thus, Eskom recommissioned Camden, Komati and Grootvlei at a cost of R5-billion, and the power stations were back on line in 2010. Now they are to be shut down again. Or not.

Meanwhile, Molefe is out of Parliament and back as Eskom CEO and he has stated that the five power stations will not be shut down. It must be very unsettling to be a worker at any one of the stations.

That is the story so far. One CEO says this and the other that. The closure or not of a power station is a very, very big decision that has to be agreed with distribution and operational staff. Once a decision is made, a great number of things have to happen – decisions on whether to mothball the power stations or sell them or demolish them. Also, there are the matters of the mineworkers unions to be considered. A shutdown power station means a shutdown coal mine.

Regrettably, it seems as if the decision to shut power stations down or not is something that is decided by Eskom CEOs for mysterious reasons that have nothing to do with distribution, transmission or operations.

What is frightening is that the direction that Eskom takes seems to be whimsical. This happened in the past, when the smelter power was sold off at a discount. Not one of our Ministers of Energy has had any qualifications which suggest that they know anything about electricity. The same applies to the Ministers of Public Enterprises, to whom Eskom reports – none of them know much about electricity. As to the Eskom CEOs, in the last 25 years, only Jacob Moraga and Allan Morgan have electrical engineering qualifications. And now – well, about the clowns; don’t bother, they are here.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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