Eskom said pollution reduction equipment at its biggest operational plant hasn\u2019t been working properly since early last year.<\/p>\n
The equipment, which cuts particulate emissions at the 4,116 megawatt coal-fired Kendal power station in South Africa\u2019s eastern province of Mpumalanga, began malfunctioning in early 2018. It was then damaged during a strike in July and August of that year.<\/p>\n
The state-owned utility\u2019s inability to curb pollution from its plants, which experts say kills hundreds of people a year, has prompted a lawsuit against the government from environmental activists because of the high pollution levels from Eskom and Sasol in Mpumalanga.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s emission limits are more lenient than those in China and India.<\/p>\n
“Kendal power station is currently operating with very high particulate emissions,” Eskom said in an emailed response to questions. “The high emissions began at the beginning of last year.”<\/p>\n
The delays in ensuring that Kendal complies with pollution standards are \u201cunacceptable,\u201d said Robyn Hugo, program head for pollution and climate change at the Cape Town-based Centre for Environmental Rights, a legal organization that represents environmental activists.<\/p>\n
“For far too long, Eskom has run rough-shod over the rights of people affected by its pollution – our Constitution demands that Eskom operate in compliance with the law,” she said.<\/p>\n
While Eskom said it initially began addressing operational issues to cut the dust emission, a strike meant that it had to operate for a time without using its so-called fly-ash removal systems.<\/p>\n
“This resulted in significant damage to the dust-handling plant and electrostatic precipitators,” Eskom said.<\/p>\n
Fly ash is produced from burning powdered coal. Electrostatic producers collect particles on charged plates using an electrostatic charge.<\/p>\n
Kendal operates six 686-megawatt units and \u201cthe damage on units five and six is significant,\u201d Eskom said. Short maintenance outages have allowed some repairs and a long outage scheduled for later this year will allow some repairs to unit five at a cost of more than R50 million ($3.6 million).<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s largest dry-cooled coal-fired power station when it opened in 1994, Kendal will be outstripped in size when Eskom fully opens its Medupi and Kusile plants. they each have a capacity of about 4,800 megawatts.<\/p>\n