Here’s how Eskom’s power stations are performing – it’s not good

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the underperformance of Eskom’s power stations is causing the open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) to be operated at a much higher rate.

Ramokgopa on Thursday provided an update on his visit to various power station across South Africa in March.

‘A great cost’

In a media briefing held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the minister said OCGTs were running at a great expense to the country.

“We are putting an inordinate amount of pressure on our peaking plants. So we are running these open-cycle gas turbines like nobody’s business… that means we are consuming a lot of diesel,” he said.

Ramokgopa revealed that 45 000 litres of diesel was being burnt per hour on two units at Ankerlig Power Station.

He said the OCGTs were needed to address the shortfall of 6 000 megawatts (MW) in generation capacity, and thus averting higher stages of load shedding.

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“They come at a great cost… there’s a question to the fiscus [regarding] the actual amount that you use to buy diesel and then there’s the cost of not running them to the South African economy. These are difficult choices that are confronting us.”

The minister highlighted that if the unplanned breakdowns and other challenges faced at Eskom’s power stations were addressed, at least 5 000MW can be brought back online.

Ramokgopa also said the impact of load shedding on the economy was “disproportionately” affecting the poor.

Earlier, the minister said “tough decisions” have to be made and pointed out that there were options available for Cabinet to decide on.

He also provided a breakdown of the findings during his visit to the power stations.

The power stations were classified into three categories depending on factors including the lifespan, output and emissions levels.

Tier 1

The minister revealed that tier one power stations, Kusile and Medupi, located in Mpumalanga and Limpopo respectively, hold some 9 600MW.

“These two stations are too big to fail,” he said.

Medupi

Ramokgopa said all units, except one, were available at Medupi, which has 4 764MW in generation capacity. Unit four was damaged in an explosion on 8 August 2021.

“What is regrettable is that this unit is yet to come back,” he said, adding that Medupi has an energy availability factor (EAF) of at least 70%.

He indicated that some of Medupi’s challenges include the premature failure of units and a wide use of “wrong” materials.

The minister said corruption has also had an impact on the power station.

” As a unit goes out of operation, as they are trying to fix it… they determine that these are not original parts and of course it [indicates] cutting of corners and people lining their pockets.”

“We are paying the penalty for those misdemeanors.”

As a result, this meant that 24% of the time, Medupi experiences unit failures.

“The interventions that are required at Medupi have little to do with whether we have declared a state disaster or not, but are at a management level and at a technical level. Let me also state that the failure of unit four has nothing to do with the quality of the parts or issues of design… it was about procedural missteps on our part.”

Kusile

Ramokgopa said Kusile has about 4 600MW, while the EAF stood at 37.4%.

“We know that of the four units, three of them are out… because of significant failures in relation to what we call the flue gas desulphurisation component [which] is essentially a chemical process that reduces the amount of sulphur in the emissions before you release it into the chimney and therefore into the atmosphere.”

He said the three units will return to operation in November and December.

This will add some 2 100MW back to the grid.

“Essentially, you are reducing load shedding by two stages, so we are improving the performance of the grid.”

Watch the briefing below:

Tier 2

Ramokgopa said tier two power stations were key to the sustenance of energy generation in the country.

One of the stations, Kendal, has approximately 4 116MW, according to the minister.

“The energy availability factor as I speak to you now is sitting at 46.75%. Of the total megawatts that is installed at Kendal, it gives us less than 2 000MW,” he said.

The minister pointed out that Kendal battles to stay within the allowed emissions levels, which meant the power station has to slow down generation.

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“We can get an additional 1 000MW at Kendal by ensuring that we address the issues of emissions and there’s a need for us to invest in the technology that can help us to ensure that we run these units without having to slow them down and without undermining our licensing requirements.”

Ramokgopa further said there was an option to run the units at full capacity, which will reduce load shedding by one stage, or lose the 1 000MW in order to preserve the environment.

He added that another way was picking both options by applying for emission exemptions in the short term.

“There are pros and cons to all options.”

Matimba

Ramokgopa described Matimba as one of the best performing station in country, with an EAF of at least 75%.

“Of course the target is to go beyond that,” he said.

The power station, which has 3 990MW, faces two “big problems” including delays in procurement of parts for its units.

“Sometimes when they take these units out, the parts are not available so it’s a planning issue.”

The other issue was the quality of coal.

“This has to do with our inability to ensure that we invest in the mines that are bringing us coal. Some of these coal mines are what we call cost plus mines and what that means is that Eskom has an obligation to invest in those mines to get the kind of quality coal that they want.”

Majuba

According to Ramakgopa, Majuba Power Station has an EAF of 47.95%.

“As you can see, we are not achieving the kind of efficiency we want and it requires our collective management to ensure that they address this.”

He said Eskom has to make investments in the plant as well as coal mines to improve the station’s performance.

“I did make a point that the constraints on Eskom’s balance sheet are known and well documented. So we need to make some choices [and ask ourselves if this is] about saying the Eskom balance sheet can’t carry this investment and yet we know the cost to the South African economy as a result of unmet demand, or there has to be a rethink of how you finance this capital requirement.”

The minister also said he expressed his displeasure on the low performance of Majuba when he met with the station’s management.

“They have shared with us interventions that they will be making and as a result of those interventions [the station] should be able to us an additional 1 880MW going into the future.”

Lethabo

Regarding Lethabo Power Station, Ramokgopa said the EAF stood at 73%.

“One of our best performers [with] an installed capacity of 3 708MW,” he said.

The power station’s performance, however, is hindered by the coal quality as well.

Tutuka

The minister revealed that Tutuka Power Station, which is 38 years old, was one of the worst performers.

“There’s no correlation between energy availability factor and age… it’s important that we dispel that myth,” Ramokgopa explained.

He said the station has 3 654MW, with an EAF of around 26.02%

Ramokgopa indicated that the “best opportunity” to eliminate “a stage or two of load shedding” was to make sure that more was extracted out of power stations that are underperforming like Tutuka.

One of the problems at Tutuka was that three of its units are old and have design flaws.

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“When you look at unit four, five and six they have been refurbished and they are able to extract maximum efficiency,” he said.

He added that money was needed to revamp the other three units at Tutuka, which is also plagued by poor coal quality.

“Something hanging in the air with Tutuka is that it’s meant to be decommissioned by 2030. So in the next seven years, the system is going to lose 3 654MW when in fact I’m standing before you saying the country is short of 6 000MW just to break even [and] get the economy going.”

The minister continued to say: “When I went to the power stations [what I saw] is the absolute lack of morale. Employees are despondent, they don’t see the future there when in fact the country and Eskom has invested in them. But we are about to lose them as a result of what is happening there.”

Matla

The EAF of Matla Power Station currently stands at 53.75% with 3 600MW in generation capacity.

Ramokgopa said the station was facing a challenge on the quality of coal, which is causing a loss of megawatts on the grid.

Kriel

Kriel Power Station’s EAF was just below just 50% because of partial load losses.

The plant has a generation capacity of 3 000MW.

“There’s 1 500MW we are not getting as a result of our inability to address the issue of cooling towers,” Ramokgopa said.

Approximately 90% of partial load losses was due to under-investment in the power station.

The minister said Kriel loses some 960MW of generation capacity, which equates to about one stage of load shedding.

Duvha

Duvha Power Station has an EAF of 40.34%, with a generation capacity of 3 000MW.

“The one thing about Duvha is that they were able to demonstrate to us that, as a result of interventions, there are dedicated teams working and trying to improve performance per unit. That’s a template that we can export to other power stations,” Ramokgopa said.

Tier 3

Ramokgopa said tier three power stations have been in operation for over 50 years.

Arnot

Arnot Power Station, which has 2 220MW in capacity, is expected to decommission at least two units by 2026.

These two units have 200MW each.

The minister said the extension of these units’ life should be considered.

“Arnot is operating at 50.4%,” he said.

Hendrina

Hendrina Power Station was running at an EAF of 23.3% with 10 units in total.

“Four units are out of operation so we are short of 600MW… that is just shy of one stage of load shedding,” Ramokgopa continued.

The minister suggested that Hendrina’s units should be brought back.

Grootvlei

Grootvlei Power Station has three units that are offline, worth some 600MW.

Ramokgopa said the units also require refurbishment.

Camden

At Camden Power Station, Ramokgopa said three units will return online by June this year.

“You can see [that] Camden is still performing… I’m not talking about units that are nor performing. We can still extract a lot of value out of Camden, but it’s something that we have chosen not to pay attention to.”

He said the station will close down in 2025.

“So essentially in less than two years time, the system is going to lose 1 560MW.”

Koeberg

Meanwhile, Koeberg Nuclear Power Station only has two units, which hold 960MW in total.

The minister said that unit one is currently offline due to maintenance.

“[The unit has been] out [for] 40 days [and] was meant to be back [online] I think end of June or July, now [Eskom] has extend [the outage period] to sometime in August.”

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