Johannesburg - Energy expert Chris Yelland on Wednesday called on Eskom to disclose how much construction projects at the Medupi and Kusile power stations were costing the taxpayer.
“Tell us what it is costing to build Medupi and Kusile, I have been trying for the past year to get the figures from Eskom, with no luck…which shows the utility has something to hide,” Yelland told delegates at the Civil Society Conference on the electricity crisis held in Johannesburg.
“Eskom needs to come clean and tell us how much these projects are costing us.”
Medupi, situated in Lephalale, Limpopo, was marred by construction delays and labour unrest. A recent strike saw workers staying away from work for two months over unpaid bonuses. The Kusile power station is near Witbank in Mpumalanga.
Yelland said the power utility’s finances were not adequate and that it needed to get its finances in order.
“Eskom has a R200 billion budget shortfall to 2018. The [acting] CEO, Brian Molefe announced an extension regarding Medupi to 2021, the power stations are way behind schedule resulting in escalating costs,” he said.
“There has to be a credible financial plan that Eskom can operate efficiently from,” Yelland said. “The R20 billion put on the table by the Finance Minister [Nhlanhla Nene] is not equitable.”
Cities needed to revitalise old power stations so that they can become self-efficient, he said. In Pretoria, the two power stations in Pretoria West and Rooiwal were being rebuilt, he said.
He spoke about the Kelvin Power Station in Johannesburg, and how it was an example of reinventing the wheel when it came to supplying electricity to residents instead of being held at the mercy of a national power utility.
“The City of Joburg’s Kelvin Station is a success story. The station produces 200MW of power, and work is being done to upgrade it to 500MW. When Eskom implements stage one loadshedding, the city does not loadshed its residents, thanks to the power generated at Kelvin.”
Two senior managers from Eskom, Malcolm Simpson and Marion Hughes, who are also part of Eskom’s ‘war room’ established by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with the power crisis, outlined the power utility’s plan to mitigate outages and produce more power.
Simpson said the ‘war room’ was operating well to contain the power crisis.
“The war room consists of calm people who work well together to achieve goals set out in the action plan, and sits in the presidency in the Union Building,” Simpson said.
The power utility has a five-point plan, which Simpson said, included optimum maintenance regime, increasing generating capacity and sourcing additional sources of energy.
Simpson added that it was important that Medupi’s full potential came online.
“It is critical that Medupi’s unit 6 becomes commercial by the end of June 2015. We have good cooperation from contractors regarding units 1-5, labour grievances are being resolved,” he said.
ANA