Pressure on Eskom to switch Botswana off #PowerCrisis
Mbongeni Mguni | Tuesday March 11, 2014 17:17
Eskom executives signal tightening availability going into winter and the country’s politicians are also demanding a review of supply contracts.
Yesterday, the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s biggest opposition party, held a press conference where its leaders blasted continuing electricity supply to regional countries such as Botswana.
Last Thursday, South Africa suffered widespread load shedding for the first time in six years, after output dropped due to wet coal in certain key thermal generation plants. Most parts of Botswana, in turn, have been suffering prolonged and erratic load shedding since last week, as domestic generation continues constrained by faults at Morupule B.
“We’ll request Parliamentary hearings to review (the) supply agreements that South Africa has with neighbouring countries,” the DA’s federal chairman, Wilmot James told journalists.
“It is unacceptable that we supply electricity to neighbouring countries when we cannot supply SA sufficiently.”
The Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) currently has a 100MW firm supply contract with Eskom, which will expire next December. The Corporation also has access to 200MW on a day-ahead auction basis.
However, in line with Eskom’s policies, the 200MW auction supply was reduced to nil during last Thursday’s crisis in South Africa, while the 100MW contract was reduced by 10%.
BPC marketing and communications manager, Spencer Moreri told Mmegi Business that last Thursday, Eskom had notified the local utility that its total supplies could reach nil.
“They have said they could cut us off completely, but this is dependent on the situation in South Africa,” he said.
“I can confirm that Eskom had previously informed us that if their deficits are high, they reserve the right to cut us off.”
Last Friday, Eskom bosses reiterated the utility’s position on exports to neighbouring countries such as Botswana, during electricity shortages in South Africa.
“During Eskom system emergencies, all non-firm energy supplies are reduced to zero and all firm supplies are reduced by 10%,” CEO, Brian Dames told a media briefing at Eskom’s headquarters in Sunninghill, Johannesburg.
“Trading partners are required to enforce the 10% reduction on their customer base and utilise all their own generation capacity to the maximum.”
According to Dames, during South African power emergencies Eskom will charge any electricity inadvertently supplied to neighbouring countries “at emergency generation rates”.
Dames said South Africa’s electricity situation would remain tight ahead of winter, with continuing risks of “emergency conditions” in March and April.
Domestic generation is presently in limbo with only one unit operational at Morupule B and the BPC relying heavily on the 160MW produced by emergency diesel plants at Orapa and Matshelagabedi.
While current national demand is peaking at 580MW, the BPC expects this figure to rise to 680MW over winter and is racing to reinstate the faulty units at Morupule B.