CAPE TOWN – Eskom on Thursday warned of a looming shortfall in generation capacity when it decommissions a number of old and outdated power stations.
Eskom management gave an update on the utility’s operations.
Andre de Ruyter said if Eskom were to fail in fixing its many problems, it would pose a strategic risk to the country.
He said a number of power stations had reached the end of their design life. This means that considerable generating capacity would have to be shed and that the risk of load shedding was still here to stay.
“We will therefore take out of commission over the next 10 years, between 8,000 to 12,000 megawatts of capacity and that will obviously create a short fall for generation capacity, going forward.”
But de Ruyter said there was light at end of the tunnel and he welcomed the procurement of 11,000 megawatts to the power system, which will – hopefully – diminish planned black outs.
“The looming shortfall from a generational capacity that we’re very grateful for is Nersa’s concurrence with Minister Mantashe’s determination of a procurement process to add 11.8 GW to the grid. We think that this is urgent.”
Source: Eyewitness News
Link: https://ewn.co.za/2020/10/22/load-shedding-looming-as-power-stations-reach-the-end-of-their-design-life-eskom
