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As Eskom struggles to meet its South African energy obligations, especially at home with a decrepit generation system, it also finds itself in the middle of an information war on at least three fronts with a common theme: what is hiding and why?
Energy expert Ted Blom is challenging the integrity and reliability of the energy company’s public information on load shedding. He told The Citizen that he has informed South Africa’s National Energy Regulator (Nersa) of his concerns about what he has described as “discrepancies in Eskom numbers.”
So serious are the technical and operational challenges facing the state-owned company (SOE), that Blom said recurring power loss episodes pointed to its inability to generate enough power to help the struggling economy.
“On one night last week, Eskom lost 5,359 MW of power. Instead of declaring the country at Level 6, they announced that we were at Level 4, going against the definition of the energy company itself, “said Blom.
“On another night, Eskom unloaded 5,642MW, but also declared that the country was at level 4 load cutoff.”
In response to Blom, Eskom spokesman Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the power company operated in accordance with Nersa’s standards and policies.
“We have load shedding, reduction and restriction. We can also ask industrial customers to reduce the load by 20%, which we do not do with consumers, “said Mantshantsha. However, Blom claimed that Eskom had been swapping the terms “load reduction” and “load reduction”.
“Load reduction is a new term made up of [Eskom CEO] Andre de Ruyter, when he throws power in the municipalities. It is a false foundation that illegal connections make it dangerous for people, ”said Blom.
“But he only charges the sheds there during peak hours. During the rest of the day, the same illegal connections that for him are not dangerous. “
On April 3, the Organization Undo Fiscal Abuse (Outa) submitted a request in terms of the Law for the Promotion of Access to Information (Paia) with Eskom, requesting that a list of specific information on the tax be made available to the public. power system performance. A Paia request must be fulfilled within 30 days. The information requested included hourly details of the energy produced by each plant, details of availability, planned maintenance, unplanned breakdowns and emissions.
“Although this is a good start, the information now being provided is still far from that provided by Eskom peers around the world,” Outa energy advisor Chris Yelland said in a statement.
Some of the information requested by Outa includes data on emissions from power plants.
“People affected by pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions are entitled to this information, as it directly impacts their health,” said Outa’s energy portfolio manager Liz McDaid.
“We reserve the right to go to court if necessary. Outa believes that good governance includes transparency. “
Although R480 billion in debt, Eskom would rather spend a large sum of money on legal fees defending Paia’s request in court from Daily Maverick’s investigations unit, Scorpio, for “key information” about Medupi power plants and Kusile, ridiculously overpriced and overdue.
“The app comes amid new episodes of ongoing blackouts, partly caused by large-scale corruption and mismanagement at these overdue megaprojects, Daily Maverick said in its newsletter yesterday.
In an attempt to get to the bottom of some of the wrongdoing, Eskom appointed the Bowmans law firm in 2018 to conduct investigations into allegations of large-scale corruption at Medupi and Kusile.
“Alarmingly, the investigations were halted about a year later, but not before the law firm’s investigators uncovered strong evidence of high-level corruption.
“Daily Maverick was left with no choice but to take the troubled state-owned company to court.
“Subsequently, Eskom denied our request. He also confirmed his decision after we filed an internal appeal. “
– [email protected]; additional reporting by Amanda Watson
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