Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the stages of load shedding could be reduced significantly if Eskom’s poor performing power stations could be jacked-up.
He said coal-fired power stations were the backbone of Eskom and electricity generation, but some of them have not been performing well.
If the government was to intervene and improve their performance the country would experience less severe stages of power cuts.
Ramokgopa said if the three units at Kusile were not taken out of service in 2021, the situation may not be as severe.
But those units will be brought on line by December.
“If these units at Kusile did not suffer the catastrophic failure, the Eskom board’s approved strategy of 60% energy availability factor by 2023 would have been achieved. But we are confident we will achieve that 60% energy availability factor,” said Ramokgopa.
He said once the three units at Kusile come back online in December that would give the country an additional 2 100MW.
However, he was concerned about poor-performing stations which could be reducing stages of load shedding.
He said these were Tutuka, Majuba, Duvha, Matla and Kendal.
Ramokgopa said each of these stations had installed capacity of between 3 000MW and 3 600MW.
Tutuka was the worst-performing station with an energy availability factor of 25%.
It was supposed to be giving Eskom 3 600MW, but it was only giving it 25% or 900MW.
“There is about 2 700MW that we should be getting from Tutuka and we are not getting that,” said Ramokgopa.
He said with Kendal power station there were emission issues. But the energy availability factor was 46%.
“Then there is Kendal. We know there are issues around emissions. It’s about 1 000MW that is locked as a result of them having to meet those emissions and it is undermining the performance of that station. I think they are sitting at about 46% of the energy availability factor,” said Ramokgopa.
In Majuba, the energy availability factor was 47%.
He said at Duvha station, the energy availability factor was 40%.
At Matla power station, the energy availability factor was 53%.
Ramokgopa said if they can improve the performance of all these power stations the country could experience lower stages of loadshedding.
He emphasised that each of these stages had installed capacity of between 3 000MW and 3 600MW.
“Those that I mentioned are between 3 000MW and 3 600MW. You do your numbers. If a station gives you 40% on its 3 000MW it means that of the 3 000MW it is giving you 1 200MW. Essentially, there is 1 800MW that it is not giving you. If you were to make an intervention there and let’s say conservatively you get 1 000MW it’s one stage of loadshedding,” said Ramokgopa.
He added that they were taking a number of measures to intervene in dealing with the energy crisis.
He said Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe will open Bid Window 7 for renewable energy in May.
He said Bid Window 7 must be allocated in areas closer to the grid. This will hasten the process to connect them to the grid.
These were in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and North West.
Bid Window 7 will be for 5 000MW.
The other plan in place was to open a mega window or rolling window for renewable energy.
This was from 15 000MW upwards in the mega window.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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