ESKOM failing South Africa. And has been for years
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Category: Economics, ESKOM, electricity
Date: 19 September 2022 If you reading this it means you actually have power, or had power for long enough to charge a devise before the loadshedding starts again. ESKOM has been failing South Africa for years, and while private power producers are trying to step in, government incompetence and red tape is slowing down the much needed help that the private sector is willing to provide.
ESKOM is in such a big mess, that independent power producers should be allowed to pump as much power into the grid as is humanly possible. If this is not done soon South Africa might soon see load shedding at Stage 8 and higher. |
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ESKOM is failing South Africa
Currently the biggest risk to South Africa, its social fabric and its economy is ESKOM. Without a reliable power source in South Africa anarchy will reign supreme, the economy wont be able to grow, and productivity of those that actually have a job in South Africa will dwindle. Imagine no street lights at night, now power to heat up geysers, cook food, power TV's and cellphones, hospitals and critical care centers such as old age homes. No power to power up fuel pumps that provides fuel for cars and trucks. No fuel in cars in trucks means no food delivery to stores and limited means for people to get to stores. Sounds like the dark ages right? Well right now my fellow South Africans we are not far from it.
In fact its so bad that President Ramaphosa is not even attending the UN general assembly in the USA, but rather flying back to SA after the queens funeral to deal with the shit storm ESKOM is unleashing on South Africa and South Africans.
The image below shows the total power available for distribution in South Africa as well as the total power available for distribution provided by ESKOM. All in Gigawatt hours.
In fact its so bad that President Ramaphosa is not even attending the UN general assembly in the USA, but rather flying back to SA after the queens funeral to deal with the shit storm ESKOM is unleashing on South Africa and South Africans.
The image below shows the total power available for distribution in South Africa as well as the total power available for distribution provided by ESKOM. All in Gigawatt hours.
Total electricity available for distribution in South Africa
Total electricity available for distribution in South Africa
From the image above one can see the red line starting to diverge more and more from the blue line. And this only means one thing. That ESKOM is producing less and less of total electricity available for distribution in South Africa. In January 2000, independent power producers (IPP) made 725 gigawatt hours available (or 4.7% of total electricity available for distribution in South Africa). By June 2022, IPP's provided 2 161 gigawatt hours. Up a whopping 198% compared to Janaury 2000. Yet ESKOM only produced 12% more by June 2022 compared to January 2000. So while IPP's gigawatt hours available for distribution increased by almost 200% over 22 years, ESKOM only managed to increase their gigawatt hours by 12% (this after spending billions of Rands on power stations such as Medupi and Kusile).
The image below shows the gigawatt hours available for distribution sine the start of 2017. And its clear ESKOMs contribution to the total electricity available is still on the decline. Will we see a day when there is no more ESKOM in South Africa?
The image below shows the gigawatt hours available for distribution sine the start of 2017. And its clear ESKOMs contribution to the total electricity available is still on the decline. Will we see a day when there is no more ESKOM in South Africa?
Total electricity available for distribution in South Africa (Jan 2017 onwards)
As at June 2022, ESKOM only produced 88.5% of the country's total electricity available for distribution. While they contributed more than 95% of the country's total in January 2000. Make no mistake, ESKOM is on the decline and will be for years to come we suspect. We suspect there will come a point where government will have no choice but allow IPP's to flood the grid with power and thereby break the shackles that their red tape and ESKOM's incompetence has held over South Africa, its citizens and its economy.