A lot of people can do a better job than Eskom. Let them

Eskom is an albatross around our collective necks, and it’s choking us to death. The vulnerability of its power-generating plants, as well as its lack of planning and foresight, were exposed by the heavy rains of the past two weeks. Some power stations in Mpumalanga could not cope with the amount of floodwater seeping in, and rainwater wet its coal reserves at storages in Medupi and other plants. On Monday, when the situation became untenable and the national grid could no longer cope, Eskom hastily implemented unprecedented stage 6 load-shedding, which demands a reduction of 6,000MW. South Africans were shocked and frustrated. Mining operations halted, small businesses shut up shop, the economy came to a standstill and so did the traffic at nonfunctioning traffic lights.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who jetted out to Egypt on the day Eskom announced stage 6, had to cut his trip short to deal with the crisis. He blamed not just the weather but pointed to possible sabotage at Tutuka power station, and top Eskom insiders confirmed that a temperature-measuring instrument in one of the boiler rooms had been tampered with. This is the stuff of bestselling fiction. On Monday evening the demand shortfall was 7,000MW and the national grid could generate only 22,000MW, less than half of installed capacity. Eskom had plans for escalating to probable stage 8 load-shedding, and at one point on black Monday we were dangerously close to that.

While several power stations were hit by the wet-coal problem, incredibly no units were running at Medupi and Kusile, Eskom’s showcase projects that cost more than R200bn to bring into operation but have been mired in cost overruns and shoddy workmanship.

Eskom has since suspended load-shedding, and

Ramaphosa said he has been reassured by executives at

Megawatt Park that South Africans will not experience the festive season in candlelight.

The shortcomings of Eskom may prove to be a blessing in disguise. This was the final push we needed to force this lethargic administration to start the process of procuring additional capacity, and to consider decentralising some power generation. On Friday afternoon, the department of mineral resources & energy published requests for information for the procurement of between 2,000MW and 3,000MW of power generation capacity that can be connected to the grid “in the shortest time, at the least possible cost”.

Finally, there could be movement. The minister in charge, Gwede Mantashe, has been dragging his feet and it was about time he was forced to move with some urgency. The future of SA lies not with coal, but with cleaner forms of power generation. There are 27 renewable energy independent power producer (IPP) projects that could add about 2,300MW to the national grid. Reports indicate that these could be connected to the grid as early as February next year.

The renewable energy IPP programme has been bogged down by disagreements in the tripartite alliance and dogged opposition to the programme from metalworkers’ union Numsa, which fears renewable energy projects threaten the jobs of its members — though to be fair, the unions have embraced a “just transition” to cleaner forms of energy, which involves re-skilling workers so they can operate new and clean technology plants.

It is diabolical that a country with such an abundance of sunlight and wind has not taken full advantage of these natural resources. Mines have been begging the government to let them produce their own power, which would allow them to sell any excess back to Eskom. The City of Cape Town is going to court for the umpteenth time to compel the government to allow it to purchase power directly from IPPs. There are a lot of solutions beyond a dysfunctional Eskom and SA must embrace all of them to save the economy and meet our climate change commitments.

The shortcomings of Eskom may prove to be a blessing in disguise