Eskom asks for R20 billion for more diesel
South Africa’s cash-strapped power utility Eskom has asked the National Treasury for R19.5 billion to buy diesel to fuel auxiliary power plants – a request that’s unlikely to be heeded, said Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
“We don’t have it,” Godongwana said in an interview at Bloomberg’s office in Johannesburg.
Africa’s most-industrialised economy has been subjected to record power outages this year, mainly due to breakdowns at Eskom’s poorly maintained coal-fired plants that account for over 80% of South Africa’s power supply.
The utility has been forced to use turbines that run on diesel, intended for bolster generation during peak-demand periods, to mitigate blackouts that have curbed economic growth.
Eskom has spent R11 billion rand on the fuel in the 10 months through October and warned last month that electricity outages may intensify if it runs out of funds to buy the fuel. The state-owned company has imposed 176 days of rolling blackouts so far in 2022, according to Bloomberg calculations.
The utility has since negotiated a deal with state oil company PetroSA for diesel, which should be sufficient to cover its requirements for the fuel through the financial year ending March 2023, Godongwana said.
Still, the state utility says it’s using the fuel sparingly.
“Due to the depletion of the budget to acquire diesel for the open cycle gas turbines, Eskom has been forced to strictly conserve the fuel for the direst of emergencies,” it said in a statement Friday, as it announced the resumption of power cuts.
It warned the power cuts may “significantly increase” in the next six to 12 months as planned maintenance and breakdowns reduce generation capacity.
All-day load shedding until further notice
Power utility Eskom says that full-day continuous load shedding at stage 2 will be implemented on Friday, and it will continue until further notice.
Stage 2 load shedding will kick in and continue from 16h00 on Friday, it said. Eskom will publish a further update as soon as there are any significant changes.
This follows the breakdown of six generating units at five power stations, it said, on top of constraints due to diesel pressures and the need to conserve energy.
A generating unit each at Duvha, Grootvlei, Hendrina, Majuba and two units at Arnot Power Station, were taken offline for repairs over the past 24 hours. The delay in returning to service two generating units at Camden and one unit each at Arnot and Duvha power stations contributed to the capacity constraints.
A generating unit each at Kriel and Matla power stations were returned to service during this period.
“As previously communicated, due to the depletion of the budget to acquire diesel for the Open Cycle Gas Turbines, Eskom has been forced to strictly conserve the fuel for the direst of emergencies,” it said.
Read: All-day load shedding is back after Eskom suffers 6 breakdowns
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