South Africa has reached the critical phase of revamping its sole nuclear plant and needs it to run according to plan to avoid deepening power cuts that are already at record high and wreaking havoc in the economy.
The first two units at the Koeberg plant was shut down for refuelling and the replacement of its steam generators, work which its expected to be completed in early June, said Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.
Koeberg’s first unit which is located on the Atlantic coast north of Cape Town, was completed in 1984 and the second one the following year. The replacement of its two generators was expected to be completed by 2021, but this was not achieved due to delays. The revamp will extend its lifespan by two decades.
“Frequent delays in returning units from maintenance are a serious cause of concern,” said Fanele Mondi, chief executive officer of the Energy Intensive Users Group, whose members include Anglo American Plc and Glencore Plc and account for about 40% of the nation’s electricity consumption.
The work on Koeberg “is one such maintenance event that has to be done on time, as delays will have a significant impact on the performance of the power system,” he said.
Koeberg has been among the best performing of Eskom’s more than two dozen power stations- one of its units ran uninterrupted for more than 400 days prior to the December shutdown, while the others were operating for more than 100 days.
It is also the cheapest to run, with its electricity costing far less than that produced from coal- and diesel fired plant.
Rising costs are a concern given that Eskom has amassed R396.3 billion of debt and isn’t generating enough electricity to cover its operating and interest costs.
Eskom generation executive Rhulani Mathebula revealed that fraud, corruption, funding constraints, poor planning, and shoddy work is crushing the power utility.
Outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter was confident that the reliability maintenance programme would succeed that he promised South Africans that power cuts would be reduced by September 2021.
However, load shedding increased after September 2021, which showed that he failed dismally.
Mathebula confirmed that South Africans did not reap any benefits from Eskom’s reliability maintenance programme.
Source: My Broadband, Business Tech, image from Twitter: @chrisyelland
