Are things getting worse at Eskom?

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  • A year ago, we warned that the plan to end loadshedding contained a fatal flaw: it relied too heavily on reversing the decline of the coal fleet.
  • Last month, Eskom provided us with the latest per-station data, providing a far more detailed picture than the public Eskom data portal.
  • The data shows that while some stations have made strides (Medupi +9%), most deteriorated (Hendrina -24%).

The lights are going out, literally and figuratively.

A year ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa finally put his foot down and announced a plan to vanquish loadshedding.

โ€œWe as a nation will have to grit our teeth as things get worse, while we all pull together to achieve this one unifying strategic mission,โ€ respected energy expert and big picture thinker Professor Mark Swilling warned in an op-ed in May 2022.

One year on, Ramaphosaโ€™s Energy Action Plan has chalked up some wins โ€“ rooftop solar, licensing, and laying the groundwork for a competitive energy market โ€“ but coal is not one of them: The performance of the coal fleet is getting worse. Weโ€™re burning diesel like thereโ€™s no tomorrow. And instead of Swillingโ€™s โ€œunifying strategic missionโ€, there is a sharpening battle over the future of coal, where the debate is increasingly unhinged from the facts.

Explore the data here or get a snapshot of where we are:

The raw data: EAF-data-as-provided-by-Eskom.xlsx

Author: Susan Comrie

This is an extract from a main article with more information Susan Comrie forย the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.ย 

Read more on this exclusive story from theย amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalismย HERE

 

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