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Eskom executives said they agreed the ongoing power outages were unacceptable, but did not want the power company to slide back to the point where it was at the peak of load shedding.
JOHANNESBURG – Eskom said it had no choice but to continue the ongoing blackouts because it could not compromise the maintenance of its old fleet of power plants.
The power company presented the status of its system at a Megawatt Park briefing on Monday afternoon.
He said planned maintenance was satisfactory between 2010 and 2014, but poor between 2018 and 2020.
READ: 26-day worst-case scenario of stage 2 power outages this winter, says Eskom
Eskom executives said they agreed the ongoing power outages were unacceptable, but did not want the power company to slip back to the point where it was at the peak of load shedding.
COO Jan Oberholzer said there was always a 50% risk of unplanned outages and only maintenance could prevent it.
READ MORE: No power plants run out of coal, says De Ruyter, Eskom CEO
“If you take Khusile and Medupi out of the equation, the average age of coal-fired power plants is over 40, so if you don’t keep it and run it red all the time, then it’s very clear why you you find where we are right now. “
Oberholzer said it was important to ensure the reliability of the old fleet and improve the performance of the new stations.
He said that would reduce the uncertainty.
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