Many of us were affected by the recent countrywide power cuts. In fact this February issue of SA Instrumentation & Control went to print late due to power outages in the KwaZulu-Natal area where the printing takes place.
The power outages, reported in all nine provinces, were caused by routine maintenance as well as unplanned outages. According to Eskom, it was routine planned maintenance which resulted in at least 4900 MW, or 10% of the national system capacity, being unavailable.
However, it was reported that several unplanned outages resulted in a further loss of 4600 MW which were caused by technical generating plant problems at the Kriel, Majuba, Camden, Hendrina and Tutuka power stations in Mpumalanga, as well as Koeberg outside Cape Town. The automatic shutdown of unit one at the Koeberg nuclear power plant was due to the turbine having tripped. Jacob Maroga, Eskom's managing director of transmission, said in a statement that this was 3000 MW higher than was anticipated for this period and electricity demand was 1000 MW higher than planned.
This intimates that Eskom has not instituted proper maintenance and planning procedures at its power stations and distribution network. As a result of this seemingly poor management at the power utility, citizens and businesses are unfortunately the ones that are forced to carry the tremendous cost of these blackouts.
Mandatory load shedding
Several parts of South Africa apart from being hit by power failures, were also affected by the sudden implementation of mandatory load-shedding in order to maintain the balance between demand and supply. The electric current on certain lines are cut off when the demand becomes greater than supply. This is a controlled way of rotating available capacity between customers in different areas.
Productivity and business confidence suffered
The widespread power outages seriously disrupted business and industrial activities which adversely affected productivity. It also caused disruptions and inconveniences to residents. In addition, such failure to provide a reliable service clearly has negative consequences for business confidence of both domestic and foreign investors which in turn impacts on the country's economic growth targets.
Infrastructure not keeping up
With the blackouts that affected large parts of South Africa, it is apparent that the infrastructure was not keeping up with demand. Eskom alleged that it had used all pre-arranged emergency options during the crisis, however this was not sufficient to address the shortfall of electricity.
According to the government, it expected a growth in the demand of electricity given strong economic growth but has not invested enough in infrastructure to anticipate this level of increase. In addition the need for new power generation capacity was recognised several years ago. But it was reported that the government had given Eskom approval for the investment only in late 2004 and the R97 billion capital expenditure programme which is only now starting to get off the ground seems to be too late.
The media reported that last year Eskom had told the portfolio committee that planning for future electricity use was under control and that its contingency plans were in place. However, mere months later and in the summer months when the electricity demand is relatively low, South Africa finds itself in one of the most far-reaching power crises in the country's history. If this can be the situation in the middle of summer, one can only imagine what potential crises lie ahead in winter when the electricity demand is higher as a result of heating requirements.
The spate of power interruptions in recent years is possibly attributed to poor management, insufficient investment in infrastructure and a serious lack of skilled staff.
300m Euro loan to Eskom
In recent news the European Investment Bank, which is the development bank of the European Union, will lend South Africa 900 million Euro (approximately R8,4 billion at the current exchange rate) for public infrastructure projects of public interest and to support private sector investment over the period 2007 to 2013.
Eskom would be granted a loan of up to 300 million Euro (R2,8 billion) to help it improve power transmission lines from the power stations in the north of the country to the Western Cape province.
Final analysis
In an attempt to avoid a similar crisis in the future, it is necessary for government to speed up infrastructure development in the electricity supply industry, and for Eskom to recruit new talent and to appeal to skilled people who had left the electricity supplier to return to its services. However, in the short term, even if power cuts are not avoided, the effects could be mitigated by timeously informing the business community and residents of planned outages.
A possible way of bringing a measure of accountability against Eskom to deliver a reliable service could be for financially punitive measures to be implemented against Eskom for non-service delivery and to provide compensation to those affected by power outages.
It was reported in the media that Thulani Gcabashe, the CEO of Eskom, was paid millions in bonus last year despite not having sorted out the persistent problems at the power utility. With these fresh blackouts, it should be questionable whether he should get another one in 2007.
With the instrumentation and control community either in the business of manufacturing or providing services, a reliable electricity service is critical to remaining competitive, particularly in face of fierce domestic and global competition. In the meantime, businesses will have to shoulder the expense of installing and maintaining generators and uninterrupted power supplies if they are to prevent or to lessen the effects of the disruptions caused by power outages on business activities.
Jaime Chan
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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