Load-shedding will be reduced to stage 3 during the evenings from Thursday and throughout the weekend, Eskom said after PetroSA provided millions of litres of diesel.

On Wednesday, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan told parliament state-owned PetroSA has made 50-million litres of diesel available to Eskom, which announced last week it had run out of funds to buy fuel for its open-cycle gas turbines.

Eskom said daytime load-shedding will remain at stage 2 from 5am to 4pm daily until further notice.

“The continued implementation of load-shedding is mainly due to the high levels of breakdowns and the limited emergency generation reserves.”

Since Wednesday afternoon, a generating unit each at Grootvlei, Kendal and Tutuka power stations were taken offline for repairs.

Four units at Camden power station had also been taken offline to repair a water leak on a line that supplies auxiliary cooling water.

Three units at Kusile power station had been offline due to the duct (chimney structure) failure late in October and will remain offline for a few months while repairs are made.

Eskom said a generating unit at Hendrina power station was returned to service.

Unit 1 at Koeberg nuclear power station will continue to generate at a reduced output over the next three weeks as fuel is ramped down before the refuelling and maintenance outage scheduled to start in December.

“We have 6,000MW on planned maintenance while 14,160MW is unavailable due to breakdowns.”

MEANWHILE,

The case against Simon Shongwe, who allegedly tampered with Eskom infrastructure in Camden, was postponed until next Tuesday for judgment on bail.

Shongwe, 43, is facing charges of tampering with Eskom essential infrastructure, tampering with electricity supply and trespassing.

His bail application was heard in the Ermelo magistrate’s court on Thursday. Judgment was reserved.

“On November 10 unit 4 at the Camden power station tripped, increasing load-shedding. On investigation, it was found that someone removed bearing drain plugs from the main bearing at the unit, [resulting] in the shaft overheating and tripping the generator. The entity suffered a loss of more than R1m. Eskom’s investigation led to the arrest of the accused,” said National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Monica Nyuswa.

One of SA’s coal-fired power station managers wears a bulletproof vest and has two bodyguards after exposing corruption at the plant.

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter revealed this on Thursday as he outlined the huge challenge of combating internal crime syndicates contributing to the country’s power crisis.

“That’s not an ideal management situation,” De Ruyter said of the security measures in place at the plant, just one of many affected by criminality. He did not name the manager but lauded him for making strides against a “hotbed of corruption”.

Speaking at an Exporters Western Cape networking event in Cape Town, De Ruyter referred to this week’s news of rocks instead of coal being delivered to another power station — just small enough to pass through the coal screening system. “We’ve been able to apprehend a truck driver who was involved in stealing coal from Eskom and delivering rock to our plants — rock doesn’t burn so well and really messes up your plant,” he added.

“Coal corruption is endemic in our supply chains,” he said. “It is a battle, it is really tricky,”

Eskom is, however, making strides towards combating crime syndicates.

“There is an ecosystem in which we operate. A fish cannot swim in a toxic stream — unless we clean up the stream we cannot hope to fix Eskom,”  he said.

One recently discovered crime involved the theft of fuel oil worth around R100m a month.

Despite crime and other challenges, De Ruyter said he believed SA would survive its power crisis and possibly benefit from it in the form of business opportunities and a more competitive economy. He said the government needed private sector help in the form of new generation and demand-side management. There were also positive developments relating to cost recovery, debt financing and foreign investment.  “Good news is coming. But we left it very late. We left it until the point where action was inevitable.

“The tree has been shaken properly and we will really see some movement,” he said.

Source: TimesLIVE
Photo: 123RF