Eskom fired up by pollution exemption

Power utility says bringing dirty units on line will mean a happy festive season

Eskom intends to take full advantage of the sulphur dioxide pollution control exemption granted this week by bringing back to the grid four units at Kusile Power Station by December, adding a much needed 3,000MW of power.

The programme started yesterday when unit 3 was fired up after the exemption was granted.

Units 1 and 2 are expected to be connected by early to mid-October, with unit 5 — not affected by the exemption — due in December. The Sunday Times understands that Eskom is running ahead of schedule.

The six units at Kusile can generate up to 800MW with around 720MW expected to reach the grid from each unit. Only one unit is currently connected to the grid.

The exemption was granted by environmental minister Barbara Creecy in March, upheld in terms of the Air Quality Act on Monday and received concurrence from Nkangala municipality on Thursday night.

It allows Eskom to fire up three units at Kusile without the flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) chimneys that were damaged in October last year by a build-up of slurry. The FGDs help reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

Eskom opted for a short-term solution of constructing three temporary stacks to bypass the FGD while repairs were under way. It meant the three units would operate at sulphur dioxide levels above the current emission standards limit until fixed.

The exemption granted by Creecy allows Eskom to bypass air quality regulations. The decision was challenged by several environmental organisations in June.

Creecy on Monday shot down the appeals, upholding the exemption.

However, it comes with strict conditions for Eskom as it is required to submit monthly updates to the national air quality officer on the progress of the repairs on the FDGs.

“These reports must be made publicly available on the applicant’s [Eskom’s] official website. This is to ensure that the postponement [exemption] is of a temporary nature and the applicant is held to account,” Creecy said in her ruling.

She also demanded that monthly reports showing the increased sulphur dioxide emissions and other health impacts on the community be made available on the Eskom website.

Eskom must monitor the impact of the exemption on animals in the area, especially poultry and pigs at the properties of organisations that appealed the exemption.

If the programme goes ahead without any unexpected breakages or trips, South Africans are likely to enjoy minimal to no load-shedding during the festive period.

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the exemption was a much needed relief as it means the power utility would move faster to reduce load-shedding.

“We had the system collapsing at Kusile in 2022 and that meant that three units were taken off the grid. To replace that FGD would take us until 2025 to ... get these units operating again. So having realised that and with the current constraints we have on the supply side we then resolved that we were going to bypass the FDGs by building temporary stacks while working on a permanent solution,” she said.

“However, because we are bypassing the temporary stacks it means we needed to ask for permission from the department to authorise the emission licence, which they have done. It means we are now adding 2,100MW to the grid, which is equivalent to shaving off two stages of load-shedding.”

The exemption, along with other units at Kusile being connected, will allow Eskom to significantly reduce load-shedding by at least three stages by December.

“By December we would have added an additional 2,880MW, which is almost equivalent to three stages of load-shedding, when we synchronise unit five,” Mokwena said. “We were very conservative at our media briefing this week not to say that we will do away with load-shedding by December, but basically if we remove almost 3,000 from the over 14,200MW of breakdowns ... it means you are left with around 11,000MW, which is very good because at 12,000 breakdown normally we only implement stage 1. Or even move it to zero ... but we don’t want to say that because this is a balancing act issue, because you may have other stations breaking.”

She said it meant load-shedding would not go beyond stage four.