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Power to the people
22/07/2008 11:26 - (SA)
Cape Town - Why is load shedding a thing of the past? Why are we paying so much more for electricity? Will we have enough power to pull off 2010?
News24 chats to Fani Zulu, Eskom spokesperson, to find the answers to these and other questions.
News24: Load shedding seems to be a thing of the past. What has changed?
It is possible to avoid load shedding if we receive the required savings from consumers and manage the level of plant performance. The system remains vulnerable as the reserve margin is still low. However it is important to understand that in winter we have more plants available as the bulk of maintenance is done in summer.
In addition the performance of Eskom's power stations has improved significantly since January and electricity demand savings of between 4% and 6% have been recorded, which has made some difference
News24: Why were we unable to meet demand last year yet are coping fine this winter?
Eskom went through last winter without load shedding and we believe that it is possible that we can achieve this, this year. Load shedding started in October last year during the maintenance summer period. The Eskom system was under pressure last winter but we did not need to implement load shedding.
News24: How are our coal supplies looking at present?
From 13 days in January, we have moved to an average of 23.8 days which compares to the target we set of 20 days.
News24: Are we still supplying power to neighbouring countries? Are we still buying power from other neighbouring countries? Can you elaborate?
Yes and yes. Eskom has long terms plans to import additional power from Africa, we also have long contractual agreements with several cross border countries. Our international sales dominated by our supply to the Mozal smelter in Mozambique. We have a long term contract with Mozal which we have to honour.
We sell smaller amounts of electricity to Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. We import power from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique and from the DRC to a very small extent.
News24: Can you explain power supply and demand nationwide in figures for us? How much do we need? How much do we have? What are we peaking on?
This varies from day to day. We require a 15% reserve margin but we are currently only achieving between 5 to 6%. Last year's record system peak was 36 500 MW.
News24: How have NERSA's decisions regarding Eskom's proposed tariff hikes affected your projected budgets for new power stations?
Budgets for capex have not been affected directly at this stage by the lower than requested price increase, which was motivated on the basis of increasing coal and diesel costs and not capital costs. Eskom's cash flow and cost of capital as reflected in our credit rating are never the less critical.
News24: Tariffs seem to have increased by varying amounts. Why the discrepancy in so many places?
Unfortunately Eskom and every municipality have different tariff structures and customer groupings and policies which results in differing impacts being felt depending on where you are.
News24: There is a lot of controversy around one possible site for a nuclear power plant in Jeffrey's Bay. When will we know the outcome of this decision, and what factors are you taking into account? Why is this location considered such a good one?
The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is currently in progress for the proposed nuclear power station. Three sites are being investigated in the EIA, one of which is the Thyspunt site.
Specialists studies which will assess the impact of the proposed development on the physical and social environment are being undertaken as part of the EIA. Flora, fauna, hydrology, oceanography, marine biology, economic, social and tourism specialist studies are included in the list of more than 20 studies that will be undertaken. Each specialist study will also be peer reviewed, thus providing confidence in the results of the study.
More information on the EIA can be obtained by visiting our website.
News24: What other power stations are you planning to build? Can you detail Eskom's plans for the next few years?
We are doubling the size of the two new gas turbine power stations in the Western Cape - completion early next year. The return to service of our mothballed power stations is ongoing and will be completed by 2011.
The first electricity from Medupi and Bravo, the next giant coal fired power stations, will start flowing from 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Ingula, our next pumped storage station, is on track for 2013. A wind farm will be up and running in the Western Cape by 2010.
News24: How are our power generation capabilities looking like for 2010? What measures is Eskom putting into place to make sure power cuts don't affect the World Cup?
It is possible that 2010 WC will take place at a time when the reserve margin has significantly improved from 5.6% to 15%. However, this will require a concerted effort by all those that live in the country to save electricity and contribute towards a target of ten percent reduction of the demand.
Fani Zulu, thank you for chatting to News24.
Disclaimer: News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
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