Ramokgopa ‘on board’ with leaning more into OEMs ‘to improve maintenance’

As part of Eskom board’s generation recovery plan, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are still a key aspect of getting the power utility back on it’s feet again.

Following years of maintenance backlogs, it’s now time to open up to more OEMs to add on to the engineering and maintenance services, and supplement the skills base at power stations that have become prone to repeated unplanned breakdowns.

Ramokgopa ‘on board’

Speaking during the “Power Plant OEMs: Their Role in Improving Performance of Eskom Coal-Fired Power Stations” webinar, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s advisor, Silas Zimu, yesterday said although OEMs were not new to Eskom, it was time to lean more into them in order to improve maintenance and possibly even bring smaller manufacturers into the game.

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He confirmed Ramokgopa was already on board with the idea.

Ewert Snyman, engineering manager at John Thompson, a division of Actom, agreed with Zimu. He said most of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations were built during the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, and “there was a period of more than 15 years where no construction work was performed”.

He noted: “OEMs are essentially created for this gap, they are companies able to design, manufacture, construct, operate and maintain the type of plant or equipment in question.”

Snyman said Actom was performing maintenance on the boiler pressure parts and high pressure piping at six power stations, “replacing critical boiler components during outages”.

He added: “There are many Eskom engineers and managers [who] are extremely dedicated, with whom we have built great relationships.”

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However, he noted that with their years of experience working with Eskom, there were many issues the utility was facing.

“For instance, materials are not always available for maintenance activities,” Snyman said.

“Availability may delay the return to service of units, the quantities available may also result in a reduced scope of work, and so Eskom must find a way to obtain the required spares on time.”

OEMs beneficial for entire energy value chain

Siemens Energy chair and managing director in Southern Africa, Thabo Molekoa, said OEMs would provide solutions across the entire energy value chain in terms of gas services as a bridge solution for the energy transition. He said the addition of OEMs would assist with the lack of materials.

“It gives a major maintenance, repair and parts solutions for the daily operation to generate electricity and water.

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“[They can also assist with] fields service, factory repairs, spare parts, service programmes, diagnostic services, engineering services and solutions, overhaul services and I&C [instrumentation and control] maintenance solutions,” he said.

“And [they can] even handle digital services for energy, protection plan operations from potential cyber threats.”

OEMs ‘indispensable’

According to one of the original OEMs of Eskom’s older coalfired boilers in South Africa, Babcock’s Thava Govender, it was important to understand what OEMs were because they were “indispensable”. He noted that OEMs offered end-to-end services.

“We design, supply, operate, manufacture, construct, commission, maintain and guarantee the long-term performance of the product.

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“OEMs possess comprehensive understanding, drawings, and design performance parameters of the plant, mainly because they have industry tailored solutions and are drivers of innovation,” said Govender.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za