HOW MY POWER TRIP LED TO AN EXTRA STEAK ON THE BRAAI
I visited all 14 Eskom power stations this year to meet the people running them — and made a bet I didn’t mind losing. Hendrik Hancke shares his story
In 2023 I travelled 1,913.1km to meet the managers of all 14 of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations and was surprised at what I found — a state-owned behemoth fighting to regain its lost glory after losing its way in red tape and corruption. The eight-month mission included navigating the country’s deteriorating roads along with thousands of coalcarrying trucks, braving extreme weather and surviving a car accident en route to one interview. Then there were the snake warnings that come with safety inductions in the bushveld.
It also cost me a steak dinner.
From Lethabo power station near Vanderbijlpark to Tutuka in Mpumalanga and Lephalale in the Limpopo bushveld, I found Eskomites determined to keep the lights on and roll back load-shedding.
More money has been made available for planned shutdowns for maintenance and much of the red tape around ordering spare parts has been cut, but more important is the fact that purchasing responsibility and hiring/firing powers have been restored to the 14 managers.
Stuck with an ageing fleet — in some cases using 1950s technology — the once-demoralised workforce has been rejuvenated by being able to make plans and execute them without having to phone Megawatt Park first.
Important to Eskom’s resurrection has been the realisation that the experienced members of the workforce have an essential role in achieving success.
As Karabo Rakgolela, a 30-year Eskom veteran who runs Lethabo power station, explained: “Another key to our success is the wealth of experience in our employee ranks. That gives the station access to institutional memory and informed gut feel — things born of experience. The older guys will tell you: ‘You walk your plant, learn to know your plant and listen when your plant is talking to you.’”
It is Rakgolela who can look forward to a free steak dinner. When I spoke to him in June, he said: “I am willing to bet you a steak dinner that we will have little to no load-shedding by Christmas, and after that we will not easily go above stage 4.”
On my visits to power stations, I often found myself walking the plant with the manager I was interviewing. In the control rooms and on the general plant floor I saw a healthy mix of the young and the experienced, and a workforce that generally reflected South Africa’s racial mix.
Obakeng Mabotja at Matimba echoed Rakgolela. “A power station is not something you create today. It is built over generations. We are still enjoying the fruit from this tree cared for by previous managers and staff.
“Even now, people at Matimba will still talk of the work done by someone like Clive le Roux, a former general manager of the station. Some of the processes he started still carry on today.
“We guard the flame of that institutional memory because it makes us a better power station.”
While some plants, such as Lethabo and Matimba, have good reputations for operating at a relatively high energy availability factor (EAF), I was surprised to find the new Medupi station was also improving, despite the devastating damage to its unit 4 caused by an explosion in August 2022.
When I visited Medupi in July, general manager Zweli Witbooi said his station was running at an EAF of 80%. But he was not satisfied with that and aimed to do even better early in the new year.
“We have an installed capacity of 4,320MW. Without unit 4 we are generating 3,240MW and our year-to-date EAF is 81%. Once unit 4 is back we are hoping to achieve a 92% EAF across the six units,” Witbooi said.
The view from his office windows is dominated by the power station.
“In the morning when I enter my office, through that window my power station is the first thing I see, and when I shut my door to leave for the day it is the last thing I see. And this station is powered by our greatest asset our people.”
When Limpopo-born Lourence Chauke took charge at Duvha power station outside eMalahleni at the start of 2021, it was one of Eskom’s worstperforming plants.
Two years later it hovers in the top six and Chauke is aiming for the top spot in the rankings by the end of financial 2025.
“Karabo bet you a steak dinner that there will be little to no load-shedding by Christmas and that we will not easily go over stage 4 after that. Well, I will bet you that Duvha will be No 1 when it comes to our EAF by next year January,” Chauke laughed.
Not all stations have done as well in their turnaround plans.
Morongwe Rapasha at Kriel is still fighting to improve a sub-50% EAF. Chief concerns for her are clogged cooling towers and mud in her station’s system.
“Currently our EAF is 49.2% because of the partial load losses we are taking by running only two units while our project is ongoing.”
She is hard at work to address these.
“We started a project to replace the filters so we could claw back some of the megawatts we were losing. We have done cooling tower No 3 on the south side. Now we are doing tower 1 and then 2. Once that is done, we will clean the mud from the system. This will let us claw back 150MW-200MW per unit. The project should be completed by April 2024.”
Another manager who has encountered problems is Marcus Nemadodzi at Arnot, which is running at an EAF of 35%. “One of our biggest challenges is people. At mid to senior level, we had some problems. Some of us let our guards down at a point. We went through a difficult regime and became ordinary,” he said. Ageing workhorse Hendrina is also struggling.
Its manager, Tebogo Lekalakala, said that at one time Hendrina which is operating at an EAF of 24%
was due to be mothballed.
The need to comply with more modern standards had been a “constraining” factor, he said at our interview last month.
“We constrained ourselves by putting processes and procedures in place that were sometimes impractical. This made us very inefficient. It was really all about compliance, and when you stepped outside these procedures and processes you were noncompliant.”
Lekalakala said procurement of spare parts had been a “nightmare”, but this was improving.
“Now no power station manager has an excuse. We have agreements in place with many originalequipment manufacturers so we can do things faster and more reliably. A breakdown that in the recent past put a machine out of service for up to three weeks is now shortened to three days. That makes an incredible difference.”
The eight-month mission included navigating the country’s deteriorating roads along with thousands of coal-carrying trucks, braving extreme weather and surviving a car accident
Hotter temperatures pose a risk to people, livestock, birds and wildlife, like these African wild dogs, which produce fewer pups when they suffer heat stress.