Numsa spokesperson Castro Ngobese said, “It is Numsa’s view that the [application] is nothing else but mere tinkering when what is required is a fundamental restructuring of how Eskom is managed, and how the utility operates and how it is restructured.”
This followed the announcement by the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) that they will hold public hearings on Eskom’s application at the Nasrec Expo Centre. According to Nersa, Eskom’s application is for a total price increase of 25.30 percent for the 2015/16 financial year.
Ngobese said Eskom’s application lists assumptions that have not been borne out by reality, which were demand forecasts, commissioning dates of power stations Medupi, Kusile and Ingqula, the expected of performance of the current Eskom generation fleet, and challenges in coal supplies.
“The reality since November 2014 has been rotational load shedding, unplanned outages of the generation fleet, the drop in the availability of Eskom power plants to 74 percent and… inefficient use of diesel to keep the lights burning at all costs,” he said.
“How does one explain that Nersa granted Eskom R2.54 billion for [open cycle gas turbines] generation costs for 2013/14, but the utility spent R10.6 billion for the same period?”
The union believed this was nothing but an abuse by Eskom of its licence conditions. Ngobese said the Electricity Regulation Act required that every licensee must operate its business efficiently, and Eskom had not done this.
“Our demand as Numsa is for a judicial commission of enquiry that will investigate delays and cost overruns,” added Ngobese.
“The commission must also investigate contracts and tenders that Eskom management has entered into with contractors; senior management packages and remuneration; the voluntary retirement packages; and the relationship between consultants and Eskom employees.”
