Money for diesel must be found to alleviate country’s worsening power crisis says energy body

SANEA calls on Eskom to give more clarity on maintenance progress

The South African National Energy Association (SANEA) has expressed deep concern at the worsening electricity crisis.

This comes after Eskom announced the implementation of “extreme loadshedding” due to diesel reserves running dry, with no plans to order more until early 2023 due to financial constraints.

Loadshedding has already dealt a staggering blow to the South African economy, contributing to a 0.7% decline in the country’s GDP in the second quarter of 2022.

“Right now, we’re in a state of crisis and we need to come up with the best possible short-term solution to avoid catastrophic economic implications,” says SANEA board member Etienne Rübbers.

“The only way forward at this point is to ensure that Eskom has the money to get diesel now as a matter of extreme urgency. The money needs to be found at all costs to salvage the economy.” he explains.

However, Rübbers says diesel is not a long-term solution to the energy crisis, and accelerated engagement with renewable energy solutions is the only way forward.

SANEA says while it welcomes government commitments to renewable energy, its concerned about a lack of speed in implementation. If decisions in this respect had been taken two years ago, the country would not be experiencing the levels of rolling blackouts that exist right now particularly in the runup to the busy festive season where commerce will inevitably be impacted.

Aside from accelerated exploration and more investment into renewable energy, SANEA has also called for more transparency and clearer explanation into the lack of progress from Eskom on why maintenance investment is not yielding results.

“A situation like this begs the question ‘what has Eskom been doing with all of the money that has supposedly gone into repair and upkeep for the past five years?’,” says Rübbers.

“There is much talk about investment in maintenance, but failing infrastructure is continuously blamed for rolling blackouts increasing in severity. What is going on? It is high time Eskom was more forthcoming with this information instead of its daily opaque statements that say very little and add to the country’s collective anxiety.”

SANEA’s recent annual conference saw the release of the organisation’s Energy Risk Report, which outlines the current state of the energy sector.

The report says while some progress continues on reducing policy uncertainty, actions taken are not sufficient and change is not rapid enough.

Notes the report: “It is evident that some policy is done either in silos or does not consider the broader implications required for positioning South Africa in global markets such as hydrogen. This means that South Africa’s relative competitiveness in comparison to other countries (and their policy positions) needs to be considered more carefully and the balance of the economy positioned based on energy input.”

The report also says the sheer scale of new infrastructure required for taking advantage of modern technologies but also replacing existing infrastructure is not considered in an integrated manner and therefore not adequately resourced and that configuring the skills sector to deal with new requirements as well as current challenges must be a priority.