Eskom’s stolen electricity is more than the deficit which results in load shedding

If Eskom cuts off power to nonpayers then there would, in all likelihood, be no need for load shedding. The utility said that 30% of its generating capacity is presently being stolen or had not been paid for. That 30% is more than the deficit which results in load shedding. Eskom calls it nontechnical losses.

It explained: “Nontechnical losses refer to electricity theft, non-payment by customers etc.”

It amounts to around 13 500 megawatts out of a total of about 45 000 megawatts in generating capacity. If Eskom managed to collect unpaid bills and snip illegal connections, the 4 000 megawatts that is removed from the grid when stage 4 load shedding hits can be buffered three times over by the utility taking action, saving business, industry and households billions of rands in losses.

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James Brent-Styan, author of the explosive exposé on Eskom, Blackout – The Eskom Crisis, said: “Reports on the latest figures of nontechnical losses are massively concerning and show a multifold increase over the past 10 years, where it used to be below 10%.

“The only answer in addressing nontechnical losses and municipal debt is in political will at a national government level. Sadly, calls to tackle this for more than a decade have fallen on deaf ears.

“Municipal debt to Eskom, presently at R50 billion, it is utterly unsustainable and the utility is in all material aspects insolvent.

“It has no money to solve our electricity problems moving forward. If this is not addressed [chief executive André] De Ruyter’s plans are doomed to fail.”

But clawing back any cash is unlikely to materialise, said Wayne Duvenage of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).

“Attempts to debt collect and turn off bad individual payers or municipalities have amounted to naught,” he said.

“I imagine that every time they may want to blackout nonpayers, there is a tap on the shoulder that reminds Eskom about the number of votes it may cost the ruling party.”

‘Eskom only has two options’

Eskom’s total debt is at about R400 billion. Just the interest payments amount to about R30 billion annually.

Brent-Styan added: “Eskom only has two options: to get help with its debt burden from national government or impose massive increases in tariffs to users.”

Every stage of load shedding costs the economy about R500 million per day, per stage. That means a week of stage 4 load shedding costs the country R14 billion. After 14 years of load shedding, it numbers close to a trillion rands, close to the R1.5 trillion stolen from national coffers over the past five years, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last year.

Cape Town has successfully moved to minimise its reliance on Eskom. This is presently saving the city as it lags one stage behind the rest of the country in blackouts. Cape Town has installed its own hydroelectric power plant at Steenbras Dam.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has appointed a task team to take it further. It is not the only city to look for greener pastures, in many senses of the word. Cape Town is focusing on renewable energy while the Ekurhuleni metro has identified 49 possible micro-suppliers to supplement power feed into its local grid.

Ekurhuleni started its project at home and is presently rolling out a mass solar power generation project across all its public buildings. It plans to reduce its dependency on Eskom substantially.

The Democratic Alliance’s shadow MMC for water, energy and sanitation in Ekurhuleni, Simon Lapping, said: “The city anticipates the first power feed from an independent supplier should be wired into the system by the end of the year, early next.

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“We are also going to propose a buy-back scheme where companies and homeowners already on alternative energy sources, like solar, feed back their excess electricity back into the grid for financial benefit.”

The idea makes sense, but will require a bucket-load of legislation.

Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse said in May the city was also determined to start sourcing its own electricity. Several banks have also created products to enable citizens to borrow money to get off the grid.

– news@citizen.co.za