Eskom’s lies to get rid of the burden

Eskom promises an end to load shedding after 13 years of power failures, but with a history of corruption, mismanagement and lies, it’s hard to believe the power company.

This year, South Africa has experienced the worst power outages in history, with regular stage 4 outages occurring in recent weeks.

The latest episode of cargo loss comes after Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said in May that they expected no more than three days of stage 1 cargo shedding this winter.

At the time, energy adviser Ted Blom said Eskom’s optimism was wrong and warned that South Africans should prepare for the worst.

Eskom dismissed Blom’s warning at the time, but three months later he was proven correct.

When asked about the wrong claim of “three days of stage 1 load shedding this winter,” Eskom spokesman Sikonathi Mantshantsha tried to downplay this year’s power outages.

Speaking in a SABC interview on Thursday September 3, Mantshantsha said that “this is exactly the 14th day of load reduction this year.”

Mantshantsha later clarified that “the 14 days of cargo shedding I was talking about were those that occurred during the winter.”

It added that De Ruyter’s claims of only three days of cargo shedding this winter were based on information they had at the time.

This, however, points to inaccurate information provided to De Ruyter and corroborates Blom’s claim that Eskom has underestimated the problems at the company.

It also adds to the list of statements that have broken trust in the company’s promises around cargo removal.

We are seeing the end of cargo shedding – Mantshantsha

In the same interview, the Eskom spokesman said that “we are seeing the end of the shedding of charges” after 13 years of power outages.

Mantshantsha referred to the recent statement by Vice President David Mabuza that the introduction of the Medupi and Kusile power plants to the grid will help facilitate load shedding.

Mabuza said the latest round of load shedding was due to maintenance challenges and an aging fleet.

“Our people will understand that we are dealing with a very old fleet and from time to time we are dealing with operational problems,” Mabuza said.

He added that the introduction of Independent Power Producers (IPP) will also help with the country’s power outages.

This is not the first time that South Africans have heard this promise. In fact, South Africans have been hearing the same promises since load shedding began 13 years ago.

When blackouts hit the country in 2007, Eskom said Medupi and Kusile would end in 2015 to solve South Africa’s energy problems.

This did not happen. Deadline after deadline was missed, and design flaws prevented the power plants from producing the promised electricity output.

These problems do not stop Eskom and the government from hanging their hats on these two power plants to stop the shedding of charges.

To see why many South Africans distrust Eskom and the government’s promises to “end cargo shedding”, here is a summary of what they have told the public in the past:

Things will get worse unless drastic measures are taken

While Eskom and Mabuza promise South Africans that the load reduction will end soon, experts warn that things may get worse.

Researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said South Africa should prepare for exponential increases in load reduction until 2022 unless drastic measures are taken.

“Not only will the head loss continue for years to come, it will worsen significantly,” they said.

Energy analyst Chris Yelland echoed these views, saying the country urgently needs 6,000MW of new generation capacity in the next two to three years.

He said that unless South Africa launches bold and courageous decision policy initiatives, burden reduction is here to stay.

“The only way to stop load shedding is to replace low-performance coal-fired power plants with wind, solar photovoltaic, battery storage and gas generation to generate reliable, low-cost power,” Yelland said.

He added that this new capacity acquisition will not come from Eskom, so legislative and policy changes are needed.

Cargo shedding this year

The following table provides an overview of load shedding in 2020.

Interview with Sikonathi Mantshantsha

Now Read: There’s Only One Way To Stop South Africa’s Head Loss – Analyst