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Eskom’s by-product is electricity. Its real role is to employ 40,000 mainly unskilled and overpaid employees and run a bloated procurement policy designed for BEE. Just read André de Ruyter’s book.
In 2003 Eskom generated about 39,000MW with 31,000 employees, and over the next two decades it hired 17,000 more employees while actual generation fell.
According to the Singh & Fehrs’ 2001 analysis of energy information administration data, the average coal-fired power plant employs 0.18 people per megawatt of peak capacity in operations and maintenance. Thus, the average 300MW coal-fired power plant would employ 54 people in operation and maintenance on an ongoing basis.
Therefore, with a capacity of 39,000MW Eskom should need 7,100 people to run the coal-operated fleet and 600 more people for Koeberg. That’s 7,700 people in total.
The American Electric Power utilityproduces about the same power as Eskom (38,000MW) with a total of 16,000 employees, including servicing 63,000km of transmission lines.
A power utility company should employ mainly technical skills. In 2013 Eskom had 2,500 BSc engineers. In 2022 there were 1,500. The government will not allow Eskom to retrench workers, and it will not allow Eskom to procure from the most cost-effective source, so what is the motivation to be efficient?
SA’s advantage since 1928 was cheap power, which kept deep mines profitable and allowed industry to employ millions of people. Now is a wrecking ball for the economy.
In its death-dive, the only option is to sell off the power stations, use the little money they generate to pay down debt, and allow the new transmission company to procure from whoever offers the best price.
Rob Tiffin Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Sell power stations
Neva Makgetla is starting to get it (“Eskom, the 800-pound gorilla that does what it wants”, October 8).
Eskom’s by-product is electricity. Its real role is to employ 40,000 mainly unskilled and overpaid employees and run a bloated procurement policy designed for BEE. Just read André de Ruyter’s book.
In 2003 Eskom generated about 39,000MW with 31,000 employees, and over the next two decades it hired 17,000 more employees while actual generation fell.
According to the Singh & Fehrs’ 2001 analysis of energy information administration data, the average coal-fired power plant employs 0.18 people per megawatt of peak capacity in operations and maintenance. Thus, the average 300MW coal-fired power plant would employ 54 people in operation and maintenance on an ongoing basis.
Therefore, with a capacity of 39,000MW Eskom should need 7,100 people to run the coal-operated fleet and 600 more people for Koeberg. That’s 7,700 people in total.
The American Electric Power utility produces about the same power as Eskom (38,000MW) with a total of 16,000 employees, including servicing 63,000km of transmission lines.
A power utility company should employ mainly technical skills. In 2013 Eskom had 2,500 BSc engineers. In 2022 there were 1,500. The government will not allow Eskom to retrench workers, and it will not allow Eskom to procure from the most cost-effective source, so what is the motivation to be efficient?
SA’s advantage since 1928 was cheap power, which kept deep mines profitable and allowed industry to employ millions of people. Now is a wrecking ball for the economy.
In its death-dive, the only option is to sell off the power stations, use the little money they generate to pay down debt, and allow the new transmission company to procure from whoever offers the best price.
Rob Tiffin
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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