|
Eskom forks out for good coal
13/03/2008 16:22 - (SA)
London - Eskom is having to buy more raw, unwashed export coal on a spot basis because much of its newly-rebuilt stock is powered, fine coal, which is difficult to handle.
Eskom has been battling a power supply crisis that has hit the country's lifeblood mining industry and caused blackouts.
Eskom has during the past month been buying crushed run-of-mine (ROM) coal at just under R300 a ton free-on-truck (FOT) to blend with fines making them useable, the sources said.
Eskom has signed new term contracts in the past two months at around R150 a ton FOT, double last year's contract price.
A high proportion of fines delivered to the plants would leave Eskom little option but to buy ROM coal at market value in order to sweeten the blend and ensure maximum power generation round the clock, mining sources said.
Eskom has also bought a small amount of washed, export coal at around R600 a ton FOT, where ROM has not been immediately available, according to one mining source.
"You can't burn the fines all alone. The powder must be wet to keep it on the conveyor lines and stop it blowing away and then it gets clogged in the crushers which lead to the boiler," a power industry source said.
Earlier this week, Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger acknowledged that the utility had experienced difficulty handling and burning fine coal over the past few years.
This remains a problem for Eskom, he said. "It's as much an issue of quality as quantity," he said.
Coal mining companies have pledged an additional 5.4 million tons to Eskom for delivery within the next couple of months and this coal is starting to be moved, industry sources said.
Quality
"All the coal producers have pledged extra coal to Eskom. We have started deliveries and will do whatever needs to be done. If Eskom needs a different or higher quality of coal at its plants, it must tell the producers what it needs," one senior mining executive said.
The majority of large and small coal producers have stepped up deliveries to Eskom during the past few weeks and are delivering coal of the size and quality sought by the utility.
But at least one supplier has been delivering fines instead of lumps. This leaves Eskom battling a quality problem not a quantity problem.
Lumps, not fines
Eskom has been offered more than 20 million tonnes of fines for immediate delivery from discard dumps made up of slurry from washing plants and soil containing some coal from mining operations, the supplier said.
But Eskom needs coal in lumps, not fines, power sources said.
Eskom has stated that stocks at all of its 12 power plants have risen to at least six days, but South African power industry sources say much of the rebuilt stocks is fines.
This was the case at Duvha power plant on Wednesday, they said. Eskom had said the partial shutdown of Duvha was due to a broken conveyor.
Eskom's power plants each take a slightly different specification of coal but, in general terms, were all designed to take the so-called domestic grade, lower calorific South African coal which is produced alongside export coal.
Importantly, the plants were designed to take a certain fairly homogenous size of coal lumps - 30-50 mm usually.
This size of coal in lumps, with some fine powder permissible, is necessary for the coal to be rapidly, easily moved along conveyors from captive mines or stocks at plants to the crushers.
Eskom has struggled to handle dry powdered fines or wet fines in the form of slurry from coal-washing plants at some, but not all, of its plants over the past few years, power sources said.
It has become more difficult to manage the fines problem recently because Eskom is negotiating such a precarious balance between demand for power, coal supply and logistical or trucking challenges, power sources said.
- Reuters
- Reuters
|
News
Power Crisis Special Report
