SA’s over-dependence on Eskom ‘problematic’, says analyst

As the debate around SA’s energy crisis continues, experts advise against being overly dependent on Eskom, following the South African Wind Energy Association’s (Sawea) call for power generation from renewables to be speeded up.

According to energy analyst Chris Yelland, SA’s over-dependence on Eskom has proved the power utility was unable to meet demand at certain times and was unpredictable, intermittent, unreliable and performing very poorly.

“Another problem we have is that 80% of Eskom’s energy comes from coal. Now you see the risks that SA is facing,” he said.

“And the only way to deal with these risks is very simple – we need to diversify away from being over-dependent on Eskom. We need a number of generators of electricity.”

ALSO READ: Eskom suspends load shedding

Yelland also said SA needed to have more sources of energy such as wind, solar, gas, hydro power, battery storage and other technologies too.

“We are 80% dependent on power from coal and Eskom’s coal power stations are performing very poorly. Sometimes on and sometimes off. It’s unpredictable,” he added.

The association said considering that load shedding continued to increase running costs as well as reduced productivity and profitability in businesses, it was vital to explore and implement options to drive up energy availability.

“As the country’s energy availability factor again dips below the 60% mark, Sawea advocates that increased power generation from renewables needs to be accelerated,” it said.

Sawea’s chief executive Niveshen Govender said Eskom first announced its intention to initiate an auction process to make land alongside its power stations available to private investors for renewable power plants toward the end of last year.

Govender said this would remove significant barriers as it would drive the production of clean power.

NOW READ: Be grateful for stage 4 load shedding