/ 14 May 2010

SADC power producers to help during World Cup

Eskom will be looking to countries as far away as Angola and Tanzania if power becomes a problem during the World Cup.

Eskom will be looking to countries as far away as Angola and Tanzania if power becomes a problem during the World Cup.

If it does, the utility will import power from the Southern African Power Pool, a collective of utilities in the Southern African Development Community region.

It includes the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, Hydro Cahora Bassa Mozambique, the Empresa Nacional de Electricidade de Angola, the Botswana Power Corporation, the Société Nationale d’Electricité in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Tanzania Electric Supply Company and the Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi.

Eskom told the Mail & Guardian that at a meeting in Maputo on April 27 last year, the pool pledged to support South Africa and the World Cup with generation, transmission, customer contributions and demand-side management initiatives.

But the South African utility was confident that it could deliver “sufficient bulk electricity supplies, ensuring reliable power supply, during the World Cup”.

It noted that, in line with the Fifa requirements, each stadium will be powered by dedicated on-site generators.

“The load for Eskom would therefore be reduced by this action,” it said.

It would also use the open-cycle gas turbines, or peaking power plants, in the Western Cape if demand became too great.

But it denied that a contract was already in place to buy power from neighbouring Zimbabwe.

“Zesa’s commitment to Eskom during the soccer tournament is to ensure that their networks are in a position to wheel power from the north should Eskom procure energy from other parties, and to ensure their equipment is maintained and servitudes are clean to minimise the possibility of interruptions,” Eskom said.

Zimbabwe itself faces severe power shortages and Eskom has supplied Zesa with electricity in the past. The country recently struck a deal with the Botswana Power Corporation to refurbish a thermal power station in Bulawayo.

Years of neglect has left it and other similar plants derelict.

When it is complete, the plant will export almost half of the power it produces as part of the $8-billion refurbishment deal.

Eskom said that, although Zimbabwe is one of its trading partners, because of the nature of the trading agreements and energy constraints in South Africa, it does not actively sell to that country at present.