Pretoria - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown says she does not want to see any more delays in bringing the long-awaited Medupi power plant online in December.
A December 2014 deadline had been set to bring the 4 764 MW, coal-fired power station -- situated in Lephalale, Limpopo -- online to ease the pressure from Eskom’s ageing power grid.
The R105-billion power plant will go a long way to stabilise the national power grid, which has in recent months buckled under pressure to supply electricity to both residential and industrial customers.
Addressing The New Age business briefing in Rosebank on Thursday, Minister Brown said any more delays in bringing Medupi online would add further pressure on the country’s economy.
“Medupi will come online in December 2014 and Kusile will come online in December 2015… It means I can pressurise Eskom to make sure that in December 2014, Medupi is online.
“I really do not want to see anymore overruns, and it really costs us so much as a country.”
Kusile is located in Mpumalanga. It will have the same technology as Medupi but with the addition of flue-gas desulphurisation, a state-of-the art technology used to remove oxides of sulphur from the exhaust flue gases of coal-fired power plants.
Eskom CEO
Asked about who will fill the post of CEO at the power parastatal, Minister Brown said a suitable candidate had already been identified, but that she could not reveal more at this stage.
“For now, my lips are sealed but I can confirm that I’ve already identified the person… It was one of the challenges I had and it’s now gone through all the processes.
“This is why I intend taking this matter to Cabinet soon, with a view to announce a new appointment in the middle of August, to stabilise the company and to ensure that we have the skills and capacity within Eskom.”
The position became vacant following the resignation of the previous CEO, Brian Dames, who left the position at the end of the financial year. Since then, Collin Matjila has been the Acting CEO.
Stabilising Eskom
Minister Brown said Eskom would have to show a real commitment to belt tightening and cutting wastage to overcome their financial woes.
The utility has in the past said that the National Energy Regulator’s 2013 third Multi-Year Price Determination decision to allow Eskom an 8% annual tariff increase left the company with a R255-billion revenue shortfall over a five-year period between 2013 and 2018.
“… The pricing structure has already created a big hole in Eskom’s budget… but they have also made a R7-billion profit this year. We need R250 billion if Eskom is to be on good footing…
“Together with the Ministers of Finance and Energy [and our] technical teams, we are looking at how to get Eskom out of its struggle within a short period time. We don’t have a long time to look at what we need to do,” said Minster Brown.
She said by September, they should be able to tell the public what they have done to improve Eskom, so that the power utility is able to supply affordable electricity that can help the country to grow its economy. - SAnews.gov.za
