Kendal Power Station records dramatic drop in EAF in five months

Electricity and Energy Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says he had to visit the Kendal Power Station to understand the dramatic drop in the energy availability factor (EAF) in just months.

Ramokgopa visited the Kendal Power Station amid operational challenges and performance issues.

He sought to assess current performance levels, identify key constraints, and engage with power station management and staff to discuss strategies for improvement.

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On Friday, Eskom implemented stage 3 load shedding after losing 2 700MW.

This included Koeberg Unit 2, which was taken offline after being brought back on Wednesday, and two Kusile units whose coal operations went sub-optimal following adverse weather in the area.

Kendal performance

Once dubbed one of the best-performing power stations, Kendal dropped the ball in the last five months, and Ramokgopa’s visit aimed to establish the facts around that.

“Kendal has historically been one of our best-performing stations. The last time I was here, about five months ago, they were at an EAF of about 81% — some of the best performers across the fleet,” Ramokgopa told the media on Tuesday.

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“And they started from a very low base. During the intensity of load shedding, Kendal was sitting at about 42% of EAF, thanks to, among others, the intervention made by [Bheki] Nxumalo to refresh the leadership at Kendal.

“Over the period of the last month or so, we have seen a deterioration of that performance. We moved Kendal from 81% of the EAf to about 52%, so we came here trying to understand what has been some of the causes of that so that we have an appreciation that we need to make investments in our milling plant and address issues of the water treatment plant.”

Challenges

Some of the challenges at the station include the delay in the procurement as defined in the parastatal’s procurement regulations. Ramokgopa said he would engage the National Treasury to expedite procurement.

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“This is not only a Kendal issue; it’s an issue across the fleet. We will be visiting other power stations, too, to understand beyond what reaches us at Megawatt Park in understanding from a management perspective. We also had an engagement with the workers; these are the people who are hands-on and experience these challenges on a daily basis.”

Meanwhile, Eskom will continue with its aggressive planned maintenance in preparation for the winter season.