‘We have scored an own goal,’ admits Eskom bigwig

Fast depleting energy generation capacity; 13 old power stations nearing the end of life; and two newly built ones with major design defects – all these add to the woes of South African consumers and businesses, as the country endures more days under Eskom’s stage 2 load shedding, expected to end on Monday.

This was the bleak picture painted on Wednesday by Eskom executives during a virtual media briefing on the energy crisis in the country, with the power utility’s chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer conceding that – despite this year’s 10% drop in electricity demand, compared to 2010 and 2011 – “we have scored an own goal”.

Commenting on the electricity crunch – set to be more severe for the economy during winter – University of Johannesburg economics associate professor Peter Baur warned of the impact of the irregular flow of energy, saying there would be “possible spillover effects, tapering into upstream and downstream industries, affecting delivery and possibly initiating supply constraints”.

“In order to overcome the impact of a weak economy and to further take advantage of the commodity boom, South Africa cannot afford the uncertainty driven by inconsistent energy supply – eventually spilling over into the unemployment, which is already well over 35%.

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“While many industries may seek alternative supply to compensate for load shedding, this puts upward pressure on prices – weakening South Africa’s competitive advantage,” said Baur.

Wits University senior economics lecturer Dr Lumkile Mondi described the electricity crisis as “a symbol of ANC failure”.

“In South Africa under ANC rule, urban households are now being pushed to living life of the ’70s and ’80s – a symbol of ANC failure,” said Mondi.

“Citizens who can afford to finance their own transition during the energy crisis should do so, because solar panel prices have continued to decline.

“For the rest of the society, it is time to revert to old fossil fuels – paraffin, coal, wood and candles for light,” Mondi said.

“The European war has also led to fuel and food price hikes affecting local households below the poverty line.”

Responding to a question on why Eskom executives referred to “a high demand” of electricity, when there was a 10% drop this year compared to 2010 and 2011, Oberholzer said Eskom had “scored an own goal”.

He referred to Kusile and Medupi power stations which had “some major latent defect design that we are dealing with, due to the fact that we did not have sufficient time to spend in the designing”.

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The last straw, said Oberholzer, was last year’s explosion at Medupi, which was “unplanned and unnecessary – leaving us minus 720MW”.

“In terms of Medupi and Kusile, we all know that these two power stations were supposed to have been built much earlier,” said Oberholzer.

“When the decision was made to build, there was no sufficient time to plan and design them properly.

“We were basically going out on tender, faced with a time constraint, because the country was running out of capacity.”