Eskom Loses Billions To Cable Vandalism

Eskom says ageing infrastructure, theft and vandalism continue to pose challenges to reliable power supply. The power utility said it spends about R2-billion replacing lost cables while the economy loses between R5-billion and R7-billion per year as a result of copper theft.

Eskom Group Chief Executive, André de Ruyter, who provided an update on the system last week, said theft and vandalism to infrastructure impacts operations and increases the risk of power supply interruptions to customers. ‘Network overloading also remains an area of great concern.

To protect electricity infrastructure in certain high-density areas associated with high illegal connections, Eskom continues to implement load reduction during peak times.’

This load reduction has in recent months affected a number of communities in the King Cetshwayo, Zululand and uMkhanyakude Districts.

‘It remains every citizen’s responsibility to safeguard the electricity network by reporting theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure and illegal connections to authorities,’ he said.

Maintenance plans to reduce risk of load shedding Eskom expects an electricity supply shortfall of about 4 000 Megawatts over the next five years.

While the system remains vulnerable and volatile, Eskom Chief Operating Officer, Jan Oberholzer said the risk of load shedding is expected to be significantly reduced after the completion of the reliability maintenance by September.

‘The unreliability of the ageing fleet, with an uncertainty of about 6 000 Megawatts of capacity at any given time, will remain until the reliability maintenance programme is able to address the historical maintenance backlog,’ said Oberholzer.

‘Recovering the operational performance is our top priority and we will not compromise on reliability maintenance and mid-life refurbishment,’ said Oberholzer.

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