- In a short statement, Eskom has announced that they will be parting ways with Mr Jan Oberholzer by mutual agreement.
- His last day with Eskom will be 31 July 2023.
Mr Oberholzer was on a fixed-term contract to provide support to the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station long-term operation (LTO) and Kusile Power Station projects. Oberholzer was previously employed as Eskom Chief Operating Officer.
Eskom expresses gratitude to Mr Jan Oberholzer for his dedicated service, expertise and valuable contributions during his tenure. We wish him well in his future endeavours.
Yesterday in a weekly press briefing on the state of system, the Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, said that he is very worried about the Koeberg nuclear plant refurbishment running further behind schedule, which will result in higher stages of load shedding continuing into 2024.
Eskom is planning a further 200-day shutdown of the reactor (Unit 1) at its Koeberg nuclear power station that is currently offline for maintenance, refuelling and refurbishment in preparation for a 20-year life-extension. The outage on Unit 2 is scheduled to begin in October 2023, for completion by about April 2024.
The outage of Unit 1 has already removed 920 MW from the grid. This is equivalent to nearly one stage of loadshedding at a time when the electricity supply in South Africa is already severely constrained.
Related news: Civil society concern over Koeberg nuclear power site is growing
“I’ve asked for a more detailed report, and the more we get an indication of what the issues are, the more we are getting very, very, very worried. Once we have an overlap of unit 1 not coming on stream and unit 2 having to be taken out, the net picture will be that from where we are now, we will have lost 920MW, ” said Ramokgopa.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
