Commissioned by National Treasury, an evaluation of Eskom’s coal fleet operations has found them sorely lacking. The conclusion was that the root cause of rolling blackouts is the utility’s management system being ‘dysfunctional and too complex’.
A coal stock yard at Kusile Power Station, Mpumalanga. | Load shedding. | An Eskom coal-fired power station near Johannesburg.
Despite this, the EAF of Eskom’s coal fleet — at the time of the assessment — was at about 51%, whereas international benchmarks are in the range of 78%.In its findings, the report concluded that most of the issues relating to the low EAF can be attributed to a single root cause:“Too many organisational layers and opaque decision-making processes generate a tremendous amount of red tape, with lengthy procedures and a lack of accountability.
“Since O&M procedures have not been carried out correctly for years, the overall condition of plant health is in many cases mediocre to poor.” “The plants have been forced to continue operating at the expense of their technical condition. The consequences are reflected in the high number of incidents, trips and partial load losses .”
“Besides empowering the power plant management, the VGBE team recommends engaging an interim external expert team, which reports directly to the National Treasury. Member of the expert team should be permanently situated at each site to follow up key risk areas and intervene if required. The assignment should be limited to a defined period, e.g. 1.5 to 2 years.
It adds that the report reflects Eskom’s operational situation “during the period of the technical assessment, which is March to May 2023”.So now we know what many have suspected all along. Eskom’s problems are largely self-inflicted and not due to sabotage or white monopoly capital or….It’s like trying to hide an elephant – that everyone’s already met and are on first name basis with – behind a pin.
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