Eskom Power Units in Decline Due to Funding Shortage and Maintenance Issues

South Africa's primary electricity supplier, Eskom, is battling growing operational issues as the company's generating units persistently deteriorate due to the lack of funds for extensive preventative and reliability maintenance, says Ruse Moleshe, an energy expert.

Outages are a standard procedure in the energy sector, planned during periods of low demand, and breakdowns due to unforeseen maintenance are not unanticipated. However, Eskom's increasing number of units that are out of operation significantly exceeds the norm. "Recently, we've had 17,000MW of outages caused by breakdowns. With Eskom's units, restoration to full operation tends to take longer." noted Moleshe.

The issues stem from varied factors, including the unavailability of spare parts or financial constraints, among others, creating a ripple effect that leads to higher instances of outage.

In the midst of this, some of the nation's biggest power plant units remain off. These include Medupi unit four and Kusile - these are major supply areas currently producing no power.

Moleshe emphasizes the seriousness of the situation stating, "The number of units off contribute significantly to an already strained system, leading to unpredictable outages."

As the El Nino season begins, bringing with it hotter weather, there's a mounting anxiety over the potential impact on plant performance amidst rolling blackouts.

Despite additional maintenance efforts during the summer period, Eskom's units continue to deteriorate. With the increased use of diesel as a regular source of power, an energy source which should only be used as standby capacity, potential for further load shedding is quite high.

Eskom recently announced its plan to mitigate load shedding to between Stage 2 and Stage 4 over the weekend.