Eskom monopoly poses risk to economy
SOUTH Africa needs to diversify away from its dependence on coal as a primary energy source and become less dependent on Eskom as a dominant monopoly supplier.
So said energy commentator Chris Yelland, who was one of the speakers at a seminar hosted by the Centre for Environmental Rights at the Townhouse Hotel yesterday.
Yelland said about 85percent of South Africa’s electricity was generated by coal.
“And that comes with a unique set of risks because when all your eggs are in one basket it makes you vulnerable.”
He said the fact Eskom was a dominant monopoly supplier of energy posed a risk to the economy.
“The fact we don’t have an independent system market operator, that access to the grid is controlled by Eskom and they are a generator into the grid which creates unique conflicts of interest. They can hold the country to ransom and are doing just that.”
Yelland added there had been a shift from Eskom from “we are a business” to “we are an implementing agency of government policy”. But he said there was now an interesting shift where Eskom was saying “we have to look after ourselves as a business”. “But we are over dependent on a single business that is dictating the way forward in their own interests as opposed to the national interest.”
He added South Africa did not have a published Integrated Energy Plan despite the fact the law has required it since 2008. “We also don’t have a published gas utilisation master plan and only an outdated Integrated Resource plan for electricity.”
The seminar, which looked at how to achieve a stable, cleaner power supply to South Africa included speakers such as Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz, head of CSIR’s Energy Centre, and Robyn Hugo, who heads the Centre for Environmental Rights’ Pollution and Climate Change Programme.
Hugo said continuing on our existing path was not only fiscally irresponsible, but bad for the health of humans and the environment, bad for the climate, and a breach of international commitments and constitutional environmental rights.