Cape Town - With load shedding confirmed a reality in the foreseeable future, and further delays in bringing the Medupi power station fully online, DA MP Natasha Michael wants to get to the bottom of the latest twist to South Africa’s power supply troubles.
On Sunday, Michael said she had written to Public Enterprise Minister Lynne Brown for an explanation for why one of the Medupi units was being connected to the power grid even though tests showed it was not working as it should.
“Eskom appears to be ignoring the advice of its technical team and is ready to bring the boiler to life. This approach carries incredible risk. If the boiler turbines of Unit 6 are damaged and the power station is further delayed, it will wreak havoc on our economy.”
This comes as Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona acknowledged on Thursday the power utility had neglected maintenance as it moved to keep the lights on. “We have reached the point where it does not allow us to continue the practice,” Matona was quoted as saying by Sapa. “It is not whether or not load shedding will be part of our lives, but how we are going to cope with it.”
Also on Friday it emerged there would be further delays in bringing Medupi fully online, effectively making the project more than two years overdue and R40 billion over budget. Delays at Medupi from early 2013 over welding problems in the boilers put an uncomfortable spotlight on the ANC and its investment arm Chancellor House, which has a 25 percent stake in Hitachi Power Africa, the supplier of the boilers.
The Medupi and Kusile power stations were commissioned to boost the power grid after the 2007 rolling blackouts, which cost South Africa’s economy an estimated R50bn.
As consumers have faced several years of significantly above-inflation electricity tariff increases, Eskom’s woes increased in recent weeks: the Majuba silo collapsed, taking a significant contribution out of the supply grid, and diesel supplies not only drained money, but meant the turbines to supply peak-demand worked in overdrive over extended periods.
On Sunday, Eskom said it hoped there would be no need for load shedding this week. However, with sections of the Koeberg nuclear power station set to shut down for maintenance from next month, the electricity grid will be constrained. There could be just two weeks between now and April that no load shedding was scheduled.
Brown has been fighting off criticism and insisted Eskom had the necessary plans for a turnaround. “With hindsight we have to accept we probably took decisions to build these two giant power stations (Medupi and Kusile) later than we should have,” Brown said in a snap parliamentary debate in November, appealing for patience: “It is going to be very tough for two years longer.”
Political Bureau