Here are interesting facts and figures that emerged during a panel of discussion with James Mackay, CEO of the Energy Council of SA and Eskom Senior Executives.
Sitting left to right at Enlit, organized by Vuka Africa and ESI Africa are Calib Cassim, Dan Marokane, James Mackay, Segomoco Scheppers and Bheki Nxumalo.
Dan Marokane, CEO of Eskom: “Eskom is set to continue to 2030 with coal- fired power stations and find ways of reducing emissions, whilst unbundling generation continues, as well as plans to unbundle distribution begin.”
Bheki Nxumalo, Executive for Generation: “The Just Energy Transition should continue even when loadshedding is not there.
The Winter outlook shows that one of the oldest power stations (Grootvlei), is performing at 81% capacity.
We know there will be tougher days, but we are positive it will be for shorter periods.”
Segomoco Scheppers, Executive for Transmission: “We need to continue with maintenance, refurbishing and modernizing our current fleet, whilst focusing on expansion.”
About 14,000 kilometers over 10 years needs to be constructed. This can be summarized to include at least 300 projects. About 47 of the 300 projects were prioritized to bring adequate grid capacity, of 37 Gigawatts.
The number of projects in the definition stage has increased from 5 last year to 22 in the current financial year.
Calib Cassim, Chief Financial Officer: “The debt relief bill has helped Eskom to make the necessary fund allocation to units over 6 years, including for maintenance.
The Municipal debt bill was at R75 billion at the end of March 2024.”