Energy - 11 March 2024

11 Mar 2024

ENERGY

• Eskom’s leadership competencies are not at the required level due to the delay and, in some cases, scrapping of leadership development programmes and employee training. This is feedback from the German consultancy group VGBE Energy, which the National Treasury commissioned to analyse the performance of Eskom’s coal-fired power plants and recommend how they can be improved. The group comprised German engineers with extensive experience running coal-fired power plants and spent four and a half months studying South Africa’s ailing power utility. They pointed to several overarching issues, such as Eskom’s complex management system, inadequate maintenance, and low staff morale, as reasons why the utility’s performance has declined. Another factor is the general incompetence and lack of ability to implement theoretical knowledge in practice. (Source)

• South African imports of solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and inverters climbed to a record $3.8-billion last year, or about R70-billion, while imports of wind turbines began to recover following a two-year lull, analysis compiled by Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies senior economist Gaylor Montmasson-Clair shows. Imports in 2023 were double the $1.7-billion of 2022 and lifted the overall value of the three energy components imported over the ten years from 2014 to 2023 to above $10-billion. The analysis points to an extremely strong rise in solar-panel imports last year, which was also the country’s worst-ever year for loadshedding. Over the full year, about 5 GW worth of panels were imported, up from 1.3 GW in 2022. (Source)

• Eskom’s three worst power stations, Tutuka, Duvha and Kendal are the reason we have load shedding. New data from the 600-page report produced by German engineers at the behest of National Treasury shows just how shocking the decline in performance of some of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations has been. On a percentage basis, the energy availability factor (EAF), or a measure of available capacity, has roughly halved since 2010. The three power stations, Tutuka, Duvha and Kendal, could boost output by about 3,000MW – equivalent to three stages of load shedding – if they performed in line with the best-performing large stations in its coal fleet. Together, these three stations can generate 10,000MW. Kendal has an effective output of 3,800MW, Tutuka 3,500MW and Duvha almost 2,900MW. Memorably, an explosion at Unit 4 of the latter ripped through the power station and rendered 600MW of capacity useless. That was in 2011. Still, the decline in performance at these three stations has been astonishing. Tutuka, the single worst-performing Eskom power station, generates just a quarter of its nameplate capacity (on average). Duvha and Kendal each produce less than half of what they are supposed to. (Source)