BUSINESS NEWS - At least there is finally a credible plan.
The National Energy Crisis Committee (Necom) intends to recover and add 8 800 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity this year in an effort to reduce the intensity of load shedding.
There are eight interventions in 2023:
- Bring Kusile units 1, 2 and 3 back online, plus achieve commercial operation for Unit 5 (2 880MW);
- Additional imports from neighbours (up to another 1 325MW);
- An emergency generation programme and a standard offer from Eskom to buy excess capacity from commercial/industrial customers (1 000MW);
- Utility-scale private embedded generation projects (up to 1 600MW);
- Using feed-in tariffs to unlock supply from commercial and household rooftop solar (850MW);
- Ramp up demand-side and energy efficiency programmes to cut demand (250MW);
- Complete first phase of Eskom’s battery energy storage system (200MW); and
- Contract surplus supply from existing renewable producers (70MW).
What is immediately clear from this plan is just how much is riding on Kusile – Eskom’s brand-new but not-yet-finished power station, with a price tag of R161 billion (let’s be honest, the final cost will be higher; that’s just how these projects go!).
To get the three already-completed Kusile units back after October’s chimney collapse would, according to government’s plan, magically add around 2 000MW of generation capacity, equivalent to two stages of load shedding.
So, with these Kusile units back, the theory is that instead of, for example, Stage 4 load shedding, Eskom would only need to implement Stage 2.
Last month, in that hastily convened media conference on a Sunday morning, Eskom provided additional details about the Kusile Unit 1 flue duct failure that happened on 23 October.
