Eskom said on Tuesday morning, loadshedding, is largely behind us.
Now the National power utility has set its focus on improving the generation fleet, intensifying environmental performance and long-term sustainability.
Bheki Nxumalo, Eskom’s Group Executive for Generation, said “we are committed to meeting environmental regulations through continuous monitoring, transparent reporting, and proactive plant upgrades.”
This is despite a decline in performance across key environmental indicators such as particulate emissions, water usage, and incident frequency over the past five years.
Nxumalo said in a statement, since the 1980s, Eskom has implemented a phased emissions reduction strategy, beginning with a focus on Particulate Matter (PM). This included decommissioning older plants, installing fabric filters and Sulphur Oxides (SOx) conditioning systems, and upgrading electrostatic precipitators— achieving an over 80% reduction in PM emissions between 1982 and 2021.
“Eskom has made notable progress in reducing Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions across its fleet. Power stations such as Kendal and Matimba were designed with low-NOx boilers, while Medupi and Kusile are equipped with low-NOx burners. In 2019, Camden Power Station was successfully retrofitted with this technology. Additionally, Eskom has installed flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) technology at Kusile Power Station to reduce sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions and is planning to retrofit the same system at Medupi Power Station.”
Eskom has invested over R3 billion in emissions reduction projects, with R15.6 billion allocated over the next five years.