Aging power plants contribute to ongoing power outages: Eskom

JOHANNESBURG, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Maintenance has not been done to some of Eskom's aging power plants over the past five years, exacerbating power cuts problems currently confronting South Africa, Eskom said on Tuesday, the fifth consecutive day of load shedding.

Board Chairman Jabu Mabuza said at a media briefing providing details about issues facing Eskom that more than half of Eskom's power plants are over 37 years," Equipment has worn out and torn."

"Some important maintenance work has not been done in the last five years. We need time to figure things out and do the things we were supposed to do," he said.

Eskom CEO Phakamani Hadebe said the maintenance of these plants deteriorated substantially over the last 10 years.

Hadebe added that during this period, maintenance spending saw a drastic reduction from R37 billion (about 2.56 billion U.S. dollars) to R10 billion. It emerged at the briefing that money which was meant for maintenance was "diverted."

A total of R50 billion has been set aside for maintenance for the next five years.

There are currently seven generating units which have broken down due to boiler tube leaks. The break down and loss of power from Mozambique due to a cyclone resulted in the current stage 4 load shedding.

When asked if load shedding could end on Wednesday, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said a detailed response would only be given once an investigation into Eskom's plants is completed.

"We have sent 14 engineers that are visiting the plants, the power stations to give us an independent view of what is going on and how quickly we can repair what's going on there," the minister said.

Eskom has the capacity to produce 48,000 MW of power but only 28,000 MW is available. Enditem