Now that the energy department has gazetted its updated energy plan and revised downwards the need for new nuclear electricity infrastructure, you would expect the executives at Eskom to relax and concentrate on fixing what they have broken. But alas, they have come out guns blazing, forging ahead with their plans to build nuclear power stations that the company, and the country, cannot afford at present. Eskom insists that it will build 2,400MW-3,200MW of nuclear power by 2026. This directly contradicts government’s stance in the integrated resource plan (IRP), which said last week that extra nuclear capacity would be needed only by 2037.Says the IRP: "The economic growth projection assumptions made during the development of the IRP2010 have not materialised and the economic growth outlook has been revised downwards. This has had a downward impact on projected electricity demand." The IRP says the first unit of the nuclear, and additional capacity, must be implemented at a scale an...
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