Kendal power station is being put under pressure by the environmental department because it continues to release more pollutants than is legally permitted.
Sometime between July and September 2018, the emissions control system at Eskom’s Kendal power plant was damaged and it began pumping out toxic pollutants. Because it has a monopoly on keeping the lights on, the state-owned company has escaped sanction for polluting the air. But Eskom’s impunity might be at an end.
Eskom says pollution from its plants causes the death of more than 300 people a year, costing the economy at least R18-billion. Nongovernmental organisations say the effect is 10 times that, and it is felt in Mpumalanga and Gauteng. The United Nations estimates that, nationally, 20 000 people die from breathing in polluted air.To get around the law, Eskom has, since 2014, asked for permission to not comply with the regulations.
And Eskom’s newest power stations, Medupi and Kusile, the construction of which began in 2007 and 2008, are also not lowering their pollution levels. The installation of the air pollution control equipment has consistently been delayed for a myriad reasons, including financial. The environment department and district municipalities, which licence Eskom’s power plants, said this would be an exception.that getting incremental change in air quality is better than Eskom shutting down power plants, which it threatens to do when asked to fully comply with the law.
The utility is also able to exploit a loophole in air quality legislation. When plants are in an“unsettled” state — when they are shutting down or turning on — any pollution they release is not held against them. Yet this is a period of heavy pollution. The law was written with the expectations that coal power plants don’t turn on and off all the time. But, with the electricity production problems, now they do.
So Eskom is breaking the law. But to comply, it might have to power downKendal, because it has spent a decade not properly maintaining its fleet and thus relies on a handful of plants.
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