It’s time to cut losses on Kusile chaos

Just as Eskom takes one step forward with its load limiting pilot, it takes three backwards with news Kusile power plant will be allowed to eject sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere.

On Saturday, Eskom noted the postponement of minimum emission standards and the granting of the required atmospheric emission licence on 5 June and the licences issued on 13 June mean it will be able to operate the three units without the use of the flue gas desulphurisation plant, which is equipped with emission-abatement technology for sulphur dioxide (SO2) until 31 March, 2025, while the flue gas ducts in the permanent stack are being repaired.

ALSO READ: Cost of sulphur dioxide emissions from Kusile ‘may be 700 lives a year’

According to Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, SO2 is a colourless gas with a characteristic, irritating, pungent odour. The journal goes on to say exposure routes to the human body are mainly through inhalation and skin or eye contact.

“Symptoms of exposure to SO2 may include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat; rhinorrhea (discharge of thin nasal mucous); choking; cough; and reflex bronchoconstriction,” the journal states, adding SO2 “dissolves easily in water and can react with moisture on the skin and other moist surfaces of the human body to form sulphuric acid”.

Eskom has said the repairs to the ducts in the permanent stack will be completed by December 2024, and it will bring about 2 160MW in power, which will drop load shedding by two stages. We are not holding our breath.

WATCH: ‘Somebody didn’t want Kusile and Medupi to be finished’ – Mbeki

In 2019, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan admitted Kusile and Medupi power stations were “badly designed and constructed”. In February, we noted “the inescapable truth was Kusile has consistently been one of Eskom’s worst-performing power stations”.

The gas duct collapsed on 23 October. But government will continue throwing money at Kusile in a vainglorious attempt to try get something, anything, right when it comes to power generation.

It’s time for government to cut its losses, before lives are thrown into the Kusile dumpster fire.

ALSO READ: Kusile Power Station: Repairs on track, fully operational by April 2024