{"id":704727,"date":"2023-07-17T17:58:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T15:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=704727"},"modified":"2023-07-18T08:05:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T06:05:00","slug":"jan-oberholzer-leaving-eskom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/704727\/jan-oberholzer-leaving-eskom\/","title":{"rendered":"Jan Oberholzer leaving Eskom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Former Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer&nbsp;is parting ways with the embattled power utility by &#8220;mutual agreement&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group announced on Monday (17 July) that the former COO will leave the group on 31 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oberholzer retired from the group at the end of April 2023, but stayed on as a contractor to provide support for the ongoing Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and Kusile Power Station projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oberholzer has been outspoken in his leadership roles at Eskom, often painting a frank picture of the country&#8217;s energy outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following his retirement, he has continued to provide insights and warnings into the reality of the Eskom fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most recently, he painted a bleak picture for the country&#8217;s energy future, stating that South Africa still lacks a plan to prevent load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biznews.com\/interviews\/2023\/07\/04\/ex-eskom-coo-oberholzers-inside-story-loadshedding\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Biznews founder Alec Hogg<\/strong><\/a>, Oberholzer further warned that South Africa still lacks a comprehensive plan to prevent load-shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s failure to develop a plan to avoid future load-shedding is concerning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s essential for policymakers to accurately predict demand in the short-term and long-term, from the next three months to 50 years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWithout a clear understanding of future needs, it\u2019s impossible to determine the necessary infrastructure requirements,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eskom has around 14 coal-fired power plants with an average age of 44 years. Apart from the ageing generation fleets, the plants have also not been adequately maintained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWithin the next 12 to 15 years, those producing approximately 20,000MW will reach the end of their operational life,\u201d Oberholzer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe need a comprehensive understanding of our infrastructure needs, considering factors such as gas, batteries, and other emerging technologies. Unfortunately, this is still lacking in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Daily Investor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/704701\/load-shedding-south-africa-walking-a-razor-thin-line\/\">Load shedding: South Africa walking a \u2018razor thin\u2019 line<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer will be departing from the company this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":704729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164,26],"class_list":["post-704727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704749,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704727\/revisions\/704749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}