Eskom shivers after Nersa’s cold shoulder
|Published
After getting the cold shoulder from Nersa, Eskom says the lack of guaranteed funding could compromise the utility's ability to hold off on more load shedding. Photo: Nic Bothma After getting the cold shoulder from Nersa, Eskom says the lack of guaranteed funding could compromise the utility's ability to hold off on more load shedding. Photo: Nic Bothma
Johannesburg - Eskom on Tuesday warned of more load shedding as it scrambles to find money to pay for those expensive diesel generators.
On Monday, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) refused Eskom’s last-minute request for an immediate hefty electricity price increase, and the utility is still waiting for the first chunk of the government’s promised bailout.
Eskom wanted another R53 billion from consumers to cover the cost of diesel for running the open cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) and for the short-term power purchase programme (STPPP), which it said it needed to keep the lights on until the delayed new power stations were online. Eskom is running out of generating power due to ongoing problems with breakdowns and a maintenance backlog.
On Tuesday morning, Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said the lack of a guarantee of funding could compromise the utility’s ability to keep the lights on. “We just needed that assurance of where the money is coming from,” said Phasiwe.
He couldn’t say whether Nersa’s refusal would lead to more load shedding. “It might happen, it might not happen,” he said.
On Friday, Parliament approved the bailout which will give Eskom a R23bn handout and convert the R60bn government loan to equity.
The first R10bn of the bailout was supposed to have been passed on to Eskom this month, but Phasiwe said it hadn’t yet been done.
On Tuesday morning the grid is stable and Eskom hopes to avoid load shedding.
Phasiwe said about 4 500MW was offline for planned maintenance and about 2 000MW was off for unplanned maintenance; this is within the Eskom target of a maximum offline of 7 500MW.
“Today we are looking good,” said Phasiwe.
Nersa rejected the Eskom application because it was missing key information and didn’t comply with the rules. Nersa told Eskom to submit an application for an adjustment that complied with the pricing rules, or to submit a new application for a new multi-year pricing period from April 2016 to March 2019.
On Tuesday morning, Phasiwe could not say whether Eskom would submit a revised or new application.
Nersa’s reasons for refusing the price request included:
* Some new power station units are not online as scheduled, and Eskom has not provided new dates for this.
* That means Nersa cannot assess the amount of usage and expected costs of the OCGTs.
* Eskom didn’t explain how much money it was saving by using less coal because the new units weren’t online yet and the existing power stations keep breaking down.
* Eskom didn’t explain the impact of the government’s R23bn handout and the conversion of the R60bn government loan to equity.
louise.flanagan@inl.co.za
The Star