Archive for the ‘Eskom’ Category

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Did you know?

• Eskom produces approximately 60% of the electricity on the African continent and, in terms of generating capacity, is the TENTH largest power company in the world.
• Eskom’s 26 power stations, located in different parts of the country, use coal, water, kerosene or uranium as their primary energy source and together keep the lights burning throughout southern Africa.
• Lethabo Power Station burns the lowest grade coal in the world.
• Koeberg is the only nuclear power station on the African continent.
• Apart from the dams and transmission lines, Drakensberg is located entirely underground.
• Palmiet is situated in the UNESCO registered Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, heart of the fynbos plant kingdom.

Energy Facts:

• Authorities predict an increase of electricity consumption of 15% per year.
• 60% of your electricity bill is caused by your geyser.
• Every time your geyser switches on it uses similar to that of 50 light bulbs!
• The average family uses less than 4 hours of hot water a day.
• The average family overpays for 600 hours of hot water every month that will never be used.
• Overfilling an electric kettle can waste enough energy to run a TV set for 26 hours!
• Leaving a computer monitor on overnight wastes as much energy as making 800 A4 photocopies!
• Lighting an empty meeting room overnight can waste enough energy to make 1000 cups of tea!

News 24

Eskom: No repeat of Jan 2008
Jan 11 2009 09:48

Johannesburg – South African utility Eskom, which is emerging from one of its busiest maintenance period ever, said it was ready to face rising demand after the festive season and avoid last January’s crippling power crisis.

Eskom’s maintenance peaked during December and the first week of January with up to 9 000 megawatts (MW) out of service, spokesperson Fani Zulu told Reuters late on Thursday.

“We are reducing the amount of maintenance now to cater for the demand slowly increasing … now we are close to 5 800 megawatts of planned maintenance going on,” Zulu said.

State-owned Eskom, which provides 95% of the country’s power, saw a near-collapse of its national grid in January last year, forcing mines and smelters to shut down for days, and costing Africa’s biggest economy billions of dollars.

Eskom has since rationed electricity and urged big consumers to save energy to ease the shortage, which critics says was caused by a lack of investment in new generation capacity.

Zulu said demand for power fell by as much as 1 500 MW late last year after smelters shut down furnaces on the back of the global economic slowdown, which cut demand for metals.

It gave Eskom a breathing space, but did not entirely erase the risk of power cuts with the reserve margin being low.

“Load shedding (power cuts) is always a possibility and that is a direct result of a low reserve margin,” he said.

The margin or spare capacity was at 8%, far from the utility’s target of 15%.

Stockpiles

To secure power supplies, Eskom, which relies on coal for most of its power generation, bought some 2 million tonnes of export-grade coal in 2008 to boost its stockpiles, which had fallen to dangerously low levels last year.

“Coal stocks are healthy now at just above 37 days,” Zulu said.

To avoid power cuts, the utility said consumption would need to drop by 10 percent. It has seen a drop of 5 percent so far.

“The bulk of that came from industrial customers, largely the mines … there is a lot of room to do some more work in the commercial and residential sectors,” Zulu said.

South Africa’ power regulator (NERSA) laid out new proposals to conserve power, under which users will have to pay a charge in addition to regular tariffs if they exceed prescribed limits.

Eskom has said it plans to spend a total of about R343bn over five years on new capacity, with assistance from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the government and its own tariff increases.

Zulu said Eskom would submit the application for the tariff increase in the next couple of weeks.

“We need to look at the impact of the crisis on Eskom, its new build programme and what it means in terms of the long-term demand prospects – we need to review all these before we can submit the application.”

The power regulator last June approved a total 27% tariff hike, short of a 53% hike requested by Eskom.

- Reuters