Eskom wants R100bn on grid extension
During a briefing, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter has said Eskom planned to spend a R100 billion to expand its transmission grid over the next ten years. The company has also established a wholly-owned transmission subsidiary.
The power utility is undergoing a process of organisational transformation, which seeks to achieve significant cost reduction and savings, while improving the overall efficiencies across key drivers such as expenditure on coal contracts and compensation of employees.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Infrastructure Fund would provide a R100 billion in catalytic finance over the next decade and further commented it would also leverage up to R1 trillion in new investment for strategic infrastructure projects.
“We are going to have to spend in excess of R100 billion to strengthen and expand our transmission work in South Africa over the next 10 years. This is an opportunity for us because it allows us to add capacity and it also allows us to participate in government’s infrastructure development programme,” said De Ruyter, noting that the company’s strategy would be aligned with the president’s recovery plan.
De Ruyter also pointed out Eskom would step up maintenance as it decommissions outdated power plants. “We have stepped up our reliability maintenance programme to the point where we now have some 14% of our units undergoing maintenance; and that is a very high number which is reflective of the seriousness with which we are tackling the reliability maintenance programme.”
