https://www.engineeringnews.co.za
Power|System|Turbines|Welding|Maintenance|Turbines
Power|System|Turbines|Welding|Maintenance|Turbines
power|system|turbines-company|welding|maintenance|turbines-person

Eskom needs 'crisis reaction' – Mabuza

Eskom Chairperson Jabu Mabuza

Eskom Chairperson Jabu Mabuza

Photo by Creamer Media

19th March 2019

By: News24Wire

  

Font size: - +

Eskom chairperson Jabu Mabuza says the operational side of Eskom requires “crisis reaction” as well as time and speed to fix the current load-shedding situation.

He was briefing the media on Tuesday, along with Minister of Pubic Enterprises Pravin Gordhan as the country entered the fifth consecutive day of rotational black outs.

The media was taken through several slides showing the gap between Eskom’s installed capacity of 48 000 megawatts and average available supply of 28 000 megawatts

Seven generating units are currently out of the system due to boiler tube leaks.

This is the single biggest cause of plant breakdowns. The power utility’s fleet is ageing and some of the power stations are 50 years old and the average is 37 years old.

Boilers can contain up to 600 kms of tubing and a breakdown anywhere along the system requires the boiler to be cooled down. The maintenance team can then access the area and fix the leakage using high precision welding. The boiler is then re-started and steam is generated to power the turbines. This entire process takes an average of a week.

“In the last five years, maintenance spend was getting less and less, [which was] incongruent with plant ageing more and more,” Mabuza said.

Mabuza said the question is what was the money earmarked for maintenance being spent on. He added that these cases are being pursued as civil and criminal matters.

Edited by News24Wire

Comments

Showroom

SBS Tanks
SBS Tanks

SBS® Tanks is a leading provider of innovative water security solutions with offices in Southern Africa, East and West Africa, the USA and an...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
GreaseMax
GreaseMax

GreaseMax is a chemically operated automatic lubricator.

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Magazine round up | 19 April 2024
Magazine round up | 19 April 2024
19th April 2024

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.101 0.168s - 142pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now