/ 22 January 2008

Eskom pulls plug on SA’s neighbours

South Africa’s neighbours are feeling the pinch of Eskom’s problems as they are plunged into darkness and face power failures of their own.

By Tuesday morning, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe had all reported national power failures and the Southern African governments have had to move quickly to clarify the reliability of future power supplies in the wake of Eskom’s decision to halt electricity exports to its neighbours.

South Africa’s neighbouring countries are net or partial importers of electricity and South Africa has long been one of their key sources of secure power.

According to Eskom’s latest annual report, for the year to the end of March 2007, total electricity sold by Eskom was 218 120GWh (gigawatt-hours).

Eskom sells power to Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

These sales to neighbouring countries amounted to 13 589GWh, up 3,6% from the 13 122GWh sold to these countries in 2006, almost double the 6 956GWh exported five years prior to that in 2001 and more than triple the 3 872GWh supplied in 2000.

This means that 6,2% of Eskom’s total electricity sales were to other countries in the region, but these sales did exceed the total output from South Africa’s only nuclear power station, Koeberg, which produced 11 780GWh during the last financial year.

Koeberg has now been taken off-line for maintenance.

Eskom’s exports to other countries were in fact higher than total residential electricity sales in South Africa, which amounted to 9 736GWh in the last financial year, or total commercial electricity sales of 7 842GWh.

But as power failuers worsen in South Africa, the country’s neighbours are being forced to implement emergency programmes to cover any shortfalls.

Load-shedding in Namibia

Namibia’s state-owned publication, New Era, reported that the country may resort to load-shedding as power failures worsen in South Africa. Namibia imported 1 632GWh over the year ended in March 2007.

Namibia, which produces 384MW of power from local plants, has a daily maximum requirement of 450MW, with the extra load imported from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

NamPower, the country’s power utility, warned that it might soon be forced to cut power in proportion to Eskom’s load-shedding programme.

“Namibia, being a net importer of electricity, will, in the coming two years be heavily affected by the regional power shortages,” said Paulinus Shilamba, managing director of NamPower.

NamPower and Eskom signed a 15-year power purchase agreement in 2006, which Shilamba said was binding.

But he said NamPower had taken cognisance of the situation in South Africa and had agreed on ways of minimising load-shedding in Namibia.

Zambia and Zimbabwe also reported power failures across their countries on Saturday night and Sunday, and were again affected by failures on Monday.

Zimbabwe plunged into darkness

The New Zimbabwe website reported that there was no immediate explanation for Saturday night’s power failure, which hit Zambia and neighbouring Zimbabwe almost simultaneously.

It said it was unclear whether there was a connection or whether the power failure could be blamed on Eskom.

Power was restored in Zambia about eight hours later, but Zimbabweans remained without electricity, water, telephones and traffic signals for much of Sunday and early on Monday.

In Zambia, Saturday’s eight-hour power cut left more than 300 miners temporarily trapped underground in the country’s Copperbelt province.

While Zambia’s power authority said there had been a “high voltage” occurrence on the network, it was unclear if the failures were connected to regional problems with electricity supply.

Zimbabwe’s state power utility Zesa said its problems were complicated by thieves who stole copper wires to two pylons near Harare, which caused a break in power transmission from Mozambique.

A year ago Zimbabwe was producing nearly two-thirds of its electricity needs, but supply has now dropped sharply, with the country now generating only half of its electricity requirements.

Lack of foreign currency has also meant the country has not been able to settle electricity bills, which has resulted in supplies being cut off by other suppliers such as Mozambique.

Eskom, which has traditionally exported electricity when it had a surplus, said on Sunday that it had stopped supplying electricity to neighbouring countries in the face of the dire shortage at home.

“When we don’t have enough capacity for domestic use, we don’t sell electricity,” Eskom spokesman Sipho Neke told the South African Press Association.

“There is no surplus, so there are no exports,” Neke added.

Load shedding hits Gautrain

Meanwhile, the effects of power failures on the Gautrain rapid-rail link was minimal, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“[Load-shedding] is obviously affecting the project but the impact is not as bad as one would have thought,” said Barbara Jensen.

The R25-billion project is one of the key support structures for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, and will ultimately link Johannesburg, Pretoria and OR Tambo International Airport.

Construction recently entered the tunnel-drilling stage, meaning that it will need a constant feed of energy to the tunnel-boring machine. – I-Net Bridge