Cape Town - Power utility Eskom on Monday announced the launch of its national demand side management initiative, which is aimed at saving some 1 500 megawatts of energy for the grid.
Speaking at the National Demand Side Management Indaba, acting group chief executive officer Calib Cassim said they were aiming to achieve a capacity from the initiative of just under 1 500 megawatts.
“Eskom needs to focus on the supply in terms of our own plants, as well as getting the DMRE (Department of Mineral Resources and Energy) more capacity from an IPP (independent power producers) perspective, but while we are looking at supply, let’s not forget the importance of demand side management to close that gap in terms of that capacity shortfall,” Cassim said.
“We are aiming to achieve a capacity from this initiative of just under 1 500 megawatts.
“We think and we know that the potential is much greater,” he said.
Also speaking at the indaba, board chairperson Mpho Mokwana said they had shortlisted five candidates for the position of Eskom chief executive.
“We have been quite advanced in the shortlisting process for the next group chief executive of Eskom.
“Such that we now have a small shortlist of five candidates,” Mokwana said.
Meanwhile, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has lent his support to the Eskom board after it failed to meet its March 2023 target of a 60% energy availability factor.
In a parliamentary question, DA MP Farhat Essack said Mokwana had in a press conference in early February promised that they were working to ensure that a 60% energy availability factor on Eskom’s generation capacity was achieved by March 31.
“Noting that a few weeks later Eskom executives pointed out the EAF target set was no longer attainable, he still has full confidence in the Eskom board now that the board has failed to achieve a key target that it had set for itself on the EAF?” asked Essack.
In his written response, Gordhan said: “I have full confidence in the board.”
He said Eskom was currently facing very constrained energy availability.
“Kusile units 1, 2 and 3 are not available until later in the year, due to the damaged flue. This removes 2100MW.
“Koeberg unit 1 is offline and undergoing refurbishment to extend the life of the utility by 20 years,” he said.
Gordhan said there were a number of units on outages - both planned and unplanned - that could not be returned to service on time.
“This results in a total unavailability ranging between 15000MW and 18000MW.”
The minister said the renewable energy projects, which were under construction at present, did not yet supply an adequate number of megawatts.
“Nonetheless, the board and management of Eskom have developed a recovery plan for the next 18 months, which will ensure incremental gains at each power station.
“The public – both residential and and business - can also make an important and sizeable contribution to reducing demand by a careful use of geysers, lights and other water-heating equipment,” Gordhan said.
Cape Times