By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister in the presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says new CEO, Dan Marokane, will offer a comprehensive outline of a revised generation recovery plan that will seek to integrate recommendations arising from various expert reports into the state of the coal power stations, including the hard-hitting Vgbe report commissioned by the National Treasury.
Marokane took over CEO at the start of March.
Ramokgopa briefed the media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan on Monday morning.
“There are greater levels of stability at Eskom now since the appointment of the permanent CEO, Dan Marokane, and of course, the leadership of the board essentially trying to ensure that there’s a consolidation of reports, their findings and recommendations,” said Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa also addressed the report by the VGBE consortium, which was asked by National Treasury to assess Eskom’s operations at its coal-fired power stations from March to May 2023.
“The National Treasury has provided significant fiscal injection to Eskom, so I think Treasury wanted to have the basis of interrogating the deployment of that capital relative to what the report would have generated, so I think that is what the report was really seeking to do.”
However, Eskom Generation’s Eric Shunmagum also reported “some inaccuracies” with the report’s findings, which required further engagement with the National Treasury before the recommendations could be integrated.
Without going into detail, Shunmagum indicated that the inaccuracies related to the report’s assessment of the water treatment plants at Kusile and Medupi.
“The report is being embraced.”
“However, there are some inaccuracies in the report, which we have formally responded to, and we will continue to work on with the National Treasury team.”
The Vgbe-led consortium assessed 14 coal stations between March and May last year and its subsequent report, which was released only last month, attributed their poor performance to a “dysfunctional” and overly complex management system within Eskom Generation.
The report concluded that the solution lay in conducting operations and maintenance in line with industry standards and proposed a decentralisation of decision-making, including by providing power station managers with “full budget responsibility and accountability”.
It also recommended the “immediate establishment of an interim team of independent experts (outside of Eskom) that reports directly to National Treasury” for a period of between one-and-a-half and two years.
Ramokgopa reported that the Ministry and Eskom had interrogated the report extensively, and he claimed that many of the issues raised were already being tackled under the prevailing generation recovery plan and through the National Energy Crisis Committee.
He also stressed that the Vgbe report was but one report that was being considered by Marokane and Eskom as part of the review of the ‘Generation Operational Recovery Plan’.
The other assessments being considered included reports by WSP and the World Bank, as well as a Ministerial Diagnostic report.
The minister said the R254 billion bailout for Eskom will focus on maintenance.
“When we went into the period of December/January, 18% of our generating capacity was out on planned maintenance, so essentially, we are not taking any shortcuts to ensure there’s greater investment in maintenance.”
The country’s power cuts are currently rotating between stage 2 and suspension until further notice.
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Video Courtesy of GCIS.