Most people who are not electrical engineers or in any way associated with the electrical business or are not associated with the interconnected power system will probably have no real idea what happens with power generation systems operated by State-owned power utility Eskom.
Just about everybody knows that Eskom supplies the power that is used by the vast majority of power users in South Africa. Many articles appear in magazines from time to time which make reference to the fact that Eskom is busy supplying power of a certain size. One will, for instance, get an article published which states that Eskom is already generating power of a certain type and magnitude. For example, a recent article advised readers that Eskom was about to allow some individual to supply power of the order of 200 MW, which would be used as a private power generator so that the private generator could supply energy for use by themselves.
This process seems quite substantial; here we have Eskom supplying power or making available power that is as large as 200 MW, which is quite large for any group. However, in point of fact, it is not a very large amount of power. At maximum demand, the whole Eskom system draws between 25 000 MW and 30 000 MW, which is way in excess of 200 MW.
The fact of the matter is that there is a limit to the amount of power which can be supplied to a group. One has to have quite a few connection points before the number of people forming a private group becomes significant. A 200 MW connection or 300 MW connection is just not that very significant.
It is a fact that power stations are much bigger than 200 MW and 300 MW. For example, one of our smaller power stations is Koeberg, which operates at about 1 900 MW. The reason Koeberg was made this size is historical. Originally, there were a number of reasons that drove the size of Koeberg: it was desirable to have the maximum power stations based on nuclear power; it was desirable to have that power station be the biggest size possible but not located near to a coal-fired power station; it was desirable that Eskom would have the ability to use Koeberg to do some strange things, which are no longer required, such as to provide power for a nuclear plant; and it was further desirable for Eskom to provide a power station which would continue to operate under very unusual power station conditions.
However, we should take a close look at the Eskom power system over the past three to five years. While, over the last six years, Eskom has more or less made a huge mess of the power system, owing to the incompetence of the operators and sabotage of infrastructure, Eskom has not been very efficient.
However, it is time for all this to change. In fact, if I can be radically outspoken, the time has come for the whole of Eskom to be privatised – for us to get rid of any restrictions on the maximum power which can be generated by any power system and for an unrestricted power system to begin a new world. Let’s hope it happens soon.
For this to become a reality, we are going to have to allow various organisations to create themselves as large individual power producers. We are going to have to allow them to freely generate power as they see fit and sell to whom they want to sell it (which will include selling to customers other than those in South Africa) and we are going to have to allow many creative ideas.
It must be noted that, a couple of years ago, when this was implemented in Australia, there were some difficulties, to put it mildly, but these were overcome. We can do the same in South Africa.
For all this to happen, we have to have commitment beyond that of Eskom alone. This will be something new. Here’s hoping.
Let’s wait and see.