These are challenging times for SA’s entire energy system, with the electricity sector reeling from rapid changes in the economics of generation technologies and storage and from innovations in system management options and objectives. This is compounded by a financial crisis at Eskom, where runaway capital expenditure has been exacerbated by a new layer of profiteering from primary energy supply, highlighting the ongoing role of coal in the capture and concentration of wealth. How one frames questions about the future of SA’s electricity supply system and how it is financed will affect what answers are considered. While there is opportunity in crisis, it is essential that the full scope of such opportunity is explored before opting for any solution or way forward. Primary concern For those of the view that many of the problems confronting SA’s "public" utility are greatly a result of, or facilitated by, the corporatisation of Eskom that was completed in 2001: starting with a discus...
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