Eskom’s sums adding up

Eskom said yesterday it was on a “firm operational and financial footing” as it reported an 8% increase in revenue to R177 billion, up from R164.2 billion, for the 2016/2017 financial year ended March 31.

Eskom’s interim group chief executive, Johnny Dladla, said the focus of the power utility had now shifted to managing surplus capacity whereas the security of power supply was the key concern nearly two years ago.

Dladla said Eskom had adopted a policy to aggressively increase sales volume to support economic growth by encouraging an annual growth of 2.1% in local demand and 8% in export sales over the next five years in a bid to manage the surplus capacity.

“Eskom is ideally positioned to support the economic recovery of SA and enable industrial growth across Southern Africa,” Dladla said.

He said Eskom’s turnaround plan was premised on three key focal areas: improving generation performance, ensuring financial sustainability and completing the new build programme.

Revenue was driven largely by a 12.1% increase in export sales and a 9.4% tariff increase the energy regulator granted last year.

Chief financial officer Anoj Singh, pictured, said Eskom has concluded new export sale agreements with a number of regional trading partners, ranging from 50MW to 200MW, to grow export sales.

Cost-cutting measures were also bearing fruit, with a saving of R20.2 billion realised in the year under review, up from R17 billion achieved previously.

The group’s liquidity position, comprising cash and cash equivalents plus investment in securities, was R32.5 billion at March 31. – ANA