Stop Eskom’s death spiral

Richard Worthington argued in his climate-action summit article that to make a real impression at the UN Climate Change Conference, the South African government should wipe 1,500MW of additional cold-fired generating capacity off the new integrated resource plan (IRP).

Given global panic over climate change, which goes largely over the heads of South Africans obsessed with internal problems, I think our government would undersell itself with such a proposal. When you don’t have good hand and are desperate, it sometimes pays to bet the house.

Sure, leave the additional 1,500MW of coalfired generation off the IRP, but at the climate summit propose discontinuation of construction and then complete closure of the Kusile power station. Taking a potential 4,800MW of coal-fired generation off the table would grab the world’s attention the right way. But such a gesture would require “compensation” of about R200bn plus.

As Kusile will never work particularly well with huge maintenance costs over its chimneys for the next 40 years, why not close it down before it starts belching carbon into the atmosphere, make the world feel better and use the compensation wisely to extract Eskom from its death spiral?

As other coal stations are closed down, independent power producers (IPPs) will be able to supply the shortfall with renewables more cheaply than Eskom ever could, while doing a lot less damage to our environment. If baseload becomes a problem, an additional gas-powered station or two should do the trick.

James Cunningham Camps Bay