Mozambican hydroelectric power generator HCB has cut off a 750 megawatt daily supply to South African monopoly supplier Eskom after the two disputed the price that should be paid for the electricity.
Eskom, whose generating capacity of 36 000 megawatts per day dwarfs the dam’s production, said on Friday that it had stopped taking electricity from Hidroelectrica do Cahora Bassa (HCB) at midnight on Thursday, since it had not agreed to meet the Mozambican generator’s demands for higher payments.
The Cahora Bassa dam was constructed in the 1970s, only to have its operations interrupted by Mozambique’s 16-year civil war, which ended in 1992. Portugal owns a majority stake in the dam.
Eskom representative Tony Stott said the disagreement boiled down to whether Eskom actually needed the energy, adding that customers would not be affected in any way.
He said HCB was demanding Eskom pay a rate of R11,4 per kilowatt hour (kWh), an amount HCB was reported as calling appropriate for replacement energy needed to fill gaps in Eskom’s own supply.
He said Eskom did not need the energy, and the rate at which the South African giant was contracted to buy surplus power was ”much lower than that”, although he did not give the figure. Portuguese news agency Lusa reported the rate to be R0,2 per kWh.
”It is a question of … at what stage does Eskom pay replacement charges, as opposed to what is a reasonable price to pay when we do have excess capacity,” said Stott.
”It is quite obvious to people in South Africa that we have not filled our excess capacity,” he said, adding that over a third of the dam’s electricity supply contracted to Eskom was actually sent to Zimbabwe because Eskom did not need it.
While Eskom could receive about 1 400 megawatts from the dam, until Thursday night it was taking only 750 MW, Stott said.
He said payment negotiations between HCB, Eskom, and the Portuguese, Mozambican and South African governments were continuing, and that in the meantime he did not know where the dam’s electricity would go. – Reuters