Eskom to miss target to boost power output from coal plants

BLOOMBERG

South Africa’s state power utility will miss a target to boost output from struggling coal-fired plants by the end of March, highlighting the poor state of equipment whose viability is being reviewed by German energy consultants.
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which is subjecting South Africa to its worst-ever electricity outages, told lawmakers in January it planned to increase production from six struggling facilities by 1,862 megawatts by the end of March. That would be enough to meet the needs of South Africa’s second-biggest city of Cape Town, where peak demand in winter is 1,800 megawatts.
That goal “will not be achieved,” the Johannesburg-based company said in an emailed response to questions.
Eskom’s 14 coal plants regularly break down, exacerbating rotational power cuts of as long as 12 hours a day that are crimping economic growth. The National Treasury announced last month that it’s hired a consortium of consultants to review the fleet and determine which ones can be revived to original equipment-manufacturers’ standards. Eskom is expected to implement the group’s recommendations to access 254 billion rand ($13.9 billion) of debt relief from the government over the next three years. The consultants will be led by vgbe energy e.V., a Germany-based technical association of energy-plant operators in 34 countries.
Eskom’s broader generation recovery plan includes improving the performance of all its coal-fired power stations. Six plants were selected initially because it was anticipated that repairing those facilities would have the biggest effect, the utility said.