This is the Eskom leadership that failed you over the last decade
SA’s power utility had a laundry list of excuses for last week’s blackouts — which led to its available power plunging to just 27,000MW of its 45,561MW capacity. But it’s clear that unless the deeper cultural issues are fixed, the stories of shoddy maintenance and contractors who couldn’t care less will only continue. And it will mean more blackouts
By Valentine’s Day, Eskom had really hit the skids. A third of its electricity generating infrastructure was out of service — with most of it having unexpectedly broken down, while the rest was switched off due to planned routine maintenance. It forced Eskom into using countrywide rolling blackouts to plug a 4,000MW hole, leaving it limping along with an inadequate supply of just 27,000MW to service the whole of SA. Considering that Eskom’s total capacity is meant to be 45,561MW (after billions had been spent on building two new power stations in the past decade), it was some collapse. Officially, Eskom blamed everything: machines tripping, boiler tube leaks, turbine faults, steam pipe repairs, mill issues and other generator problems. Either way, the impact was that SA was plunged into load-shedding for six straight days, starting on February 10. It shattered the illusion that, having got an almighty scare in December 2007 when load-shedding first brought the country to a standstil...
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