No bonuses for Eskom employees
Eskom employees and executives will not receive bonuses this year.
In an effort to minimize expenditure and cut down costs, Khulu Phasiwe, spokesman for Eskom, says the parastatal will not be paying out bonuses to its 41 000 employees.
Eskom has been dealing with financial woes since the beginning of this year and the high price of octane diesel is not helping.
Eskom needs constant diesel for their generators and most of their vehicles use high octane diesel which is more expensive than normal diesel.
“We buy in bulk,millions of litres, hence we get discounts and buy at wholesale prices from our main suppliers,” says Phasiwe.
He adds that since 2005, Eskom has been expanding its generation and transmission capacity to meet the country’s growing energy demand.
Eskom’s nominal generating capacity in 2005 was 36 208 Megawatts (MW).
“The key generation expansion projects are the 4 764MW Medupi and 4 800MW Kusile coal-fired stations, and the Ingula pumped-storage scheme in the Drakensberg, which will deliver 1 332MW of hydro-electricity during peak demand periods.
These programmes will increase the nominal generating capacity by 17 384 Gigawatt (GW) by 2019/20.”
The capacity expansion programme has cost R213.2-billion to date. This is excluding the capitalised borrowing costs Eskom incurred.
Between 2005 and March 2014, the programme has increased Eskom’s generating capacity by 6 137MW, its transmission lines by 5 497km and its transmission substation capacity by 27 565MW.
SA currently only has one nuclear power station, Koeberg.
“The government is currently working on a plan to build a new nuclear power plant that will produce 9 600MW,” Phasiwe concludes.
