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"LOAD shedding" has become a dirty phrase, but could there be a possible solution right under our noses in the form of the dormant Athlone power station?

"No." This is the straight answer from Dr Leslie Rencontre, the City of Cape Town's director of electricity services.

The Athlone power station is owned by the city.

"It would be neither technically advisable nor financially viable to recommission Athlone power station," Rencontre continues.

Yesterday morning (Monday), the Western Cape was short of 165 mW of power.

However, on the day of the worst shortages this year, Thursday saw South Africa short of 4 000 mW.

The Athlone power station, commissioned in 1961 by the city, produced coal-powered electricity for Cape Town.

Like many of the smaller stations, it produced 240 mW of power when it ran at full capacity.

But it was "mothballed" in 2003 and at present serves no purpose.

Last year, the city began the process of decomissioning the station ? a process that could last up to five years. The towers are set to be demolished, but the city is toying with ideas for the power station "shell" that will remain.

Among the suggested future uses for the site are an African cultural centre and a shopping centre.

Enquiries over the past week revealed that the city will not consider recommissioning the power station.

The cost of producing electricity emerged strongly as countering criteria ? the cost of producing electricity was also one of the reasons the power station was shut down in the first place.

"The cost of coal and its transportation from Mpumalanga is just too high," explains Charles Cooper, spokesperson for the city.

Another consideration is the pollution factor.

"Coal causes more pollution than nuclear power. We received several complaints daily from Pinelands residents who were in closest pro?ximity to the station."

Safety is another factor. The equipment is about as old as the station, and not very reliable, the city says. The cooling towers were used for film shoots after 2003, but the city had to send a safety crew to each shoot, as the stability of the towers could not be guaranteed.

All use of the towers has since been stopped. "The towers will eventually have to be imploded," says Cooper.

But even with Athlone out of the running, Eskom says they have plans to build other power stations. Starting from scratch will be a costly affair, and a power station could take five years to complete.

Eskom is building one coal-fired power station at Lephalale in Limpopo and one pumped storage station near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal, returning to service three mothballed stations in Mpumalanga, and doubling the capacity of the two open cycle gas turbine stations in Atlantis and at Mossel Bay, says Annamarie Murray, Eskom spokesperson.

Recommissioning the Mpumalanga stations is viable, as the sites are situated close to the coal mines, Eskom explains.

At a media briefing the Democratic Alliance publicised its proposed measures for dealing with the energy crisis.

The party suggested the government installs at least two million solar water heaters in households by 2011, as well as making better use of wind power, allowing small and independent power producers to generate and sell electricity and the cancellation of electricity contracts to neighbouring countries.

The DA will be promoting this policy during forthcoming Parliamentary sessions.

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