CEO André de Ruyter says the power supply at Eskom, should be stabilised by April next year, but load shedding remains a risk till at least September 2021.
De Ruyter was addressing the media on Thursday in a quarterly update on the state of the system.
He says the load shedding experienced between July and August was the result of increased demand as the government relaxed the lockdown, coupled with high levels of unplanned losses throughout the generation fleet.
This forced it to rely on diesel-burning Open Cycle Gas Turbines, resulting in R800 million more spent on fuel than planned.
Billions lost to theft
The utility is losing about R2.5 billion a year to theft, illegal connections and meter tampering, and steps are being taken to combat this.
De Ruyter says there were 1 485 incidents of cable theft in the last year, costing roughly R50 million in asset losses.
The more important loss was the reduction in reliability of supply to customers, he added.
“We are working with law enforcement, but we are asking South Africans to act as our eyes and ears [to report cable theft].”
Municipal debt still poses a big challenge, with R31.4 billion owed by municipalities as at the end of August.
This forced Eskom, to take assertive steps to arrest further accumulation of debt and recover exiting debt by obtaining court orders to attach bank accounts and seize assets.
A recent verdict in the Johannesburg High Court validated Eskom’s debt recovery approach. The case was brought by Pioneer Foods to set aside Eskom’s decision to interrupt electricity supply to Walter Sisulu Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
The bulk of Eskom’s power is coal-fired, and coal stockpiles are currently around 58 days.
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