No rise in electricity exports

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin has denied that South Africa increased its exports of electricity in the first three months of this year, saying that in fact exports fell by 8%.

At the same time, he said, imports also fell.

Speaking in Parliament, Erwin explained that the drop in supplies came about because of technical factors.

The first involved transmission network problems in both Zambia and Zimbabwe.

A second major problem was that Eskom's Apollo converter station, which receives the power generated at Cahora Bassa in northern Mozambique, was taken out of service for refurbishment.

Giving a written reply on Thursday to a question from Lance Greyling of the Independent Democrats, Erwin said that as a result Eskom had not been receiving its full quota of electricity from the DRC, Zambia and northern Mozambique.

Because imports from these countries are often used to supply other countries, most of the sales obligations along the route had to be supplied by Eskom, and exported from South Africa. But the total of exports nonetheless fell.

The minister said that Zimbabwe and Zambia experienced transmission network challenges in the first quarter of 2008. The Zimbabwean interconnector was returned to service on April 3 2008, enabling Eskom to resume limited purchases from Cahora Bassa.

"Eskom is working with the Zambian and Zimbabwean authorities to restore the Zambian connection by mid-June 2008," Erwin said. "The timeframe, however, cannot be guaranteed."

He also said that Eskom's refurbishment of its converter had been planned for and is part of the normal maintenance and refurbishment programme.

The process is anticipated to be completed next month.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)