AT A time when South Africa needs all the exports it can get, the nine-day power outage which shut down the Richards Bay Coal Terminal was bad news for the coal industry and for South Africa’s balance of payments.
Just as sobering, however, was spotlight it turned on South Africa’s municipalities and the state of electricity supply in those municipalities.
South Africans tend to think of Eskom when it comes to security of supply, because it generates almost all the power South Africa uses and runs the national grid. It’s certainly true that the national power system is tight and will continue to be so until Eskom starts to bring new capacity online, from its Medupi, Kusile and Ingula power stations, to close the supply gap.
But even when it does, if municipalities can’t get that power to households and businesses, electricity will continue to be a constraint on economic growth.
Eskom directly supplies only about 40% of households, and generally only the larger mines and industrial firms. Municipalities supply the rest, including the bulk of South Africa’s manufacturing industry — as well as key installations such as the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.
If Eskom has invested too little too late in new capacity, so too have the municipalities, whose investment in maintaining, renewing and expanding electricity distribution infrastructure has been way short of what it should have been over the past few decades.
The backlog in municipal spending runs into tens of billions of rand, and most municipalities are also battling with the technical skills they need to operate and maintain their electricity distribution networks.
It is still unclear what caused the faults on the two Mhlathuze municipal power lines which feed the Richards Bay terminal, or why the repairs have taken so long. What is clear, however, is that the coal exporters have lost significant revenue. And it can’t be good for South Africa’s reputation as a reliable supplier.
The government abandoned its original plan to restructure the electricity distribution industry, but has not come up with a new approach to the problem. It is becoming ever more urgent to do so.
For once at least, Eskom has been acknowledged as the good guy in the Richards Bay saga, speedily installing a new back-up line to the terminal and working with all concerned to try to find solutions.
Picture: THINKSTOCK
AT A time when South Africa needs all the exports it can get, the nine-day power outage which shut down the Richards Bay Coal Terminal was bad news for the coal industry and for South Africa’s balance of payments.
Just as sobering, however, was spotlight it turned on South Africa’s municipalities and the state of electricity supply in those municipalities.
South Africans tend to think of Eskom when it comes to security of supply, because it generates almost all the power South Africa uses and runs the national grid. It’s certainly true that the national power system is tight and will continue to be so until Eskom starts to bring new capacity online, from its Medupi, Kusile and Ingula power stations, to close the supply gap.
But even when it does, if municipalities can’t get that power to households and businesses, electricity will continue to be a constraint on economic growth.
Eskom directly supplies only about 40% of households, and generally only the larger mines and industrial firms. Municipalities supply the rest, including the bulk of South Africa’s manufacturing industry — as well as key installations such as the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.
If Eskom has invested too little too late in new capacity, so too have the municipalities, whose investment in maintaining, renewing and expanding electricity distribution infrastructure has been way short of what it should have been over the past few decades.
The backlog in municipal spending runs into tens of billions of rand, and most municipalities are also battling with the technical skills they need to operate and maintain their electricity distribution networks.
It is still unclear what caused the faults on the two Mhlathuze municipal power lines which feed the Richards Bay terminal, or why the repairs have taken so long. What is clear, however, is that the coal exporters have lost significant revenue. And it can’t be good for South Africa’s reputation as a reliable supplier.
The government abandoned its original plan to restructure the electricity distribution industry, but has not come up with a new approach to the problem. It is becoming ever more urgent to do so.
For once at least, Eskom has been acknowledged as the good guy in the Richards Bay saga, speedily installing a new back-up line to the terminal and working with all concerned to try to find solutions.
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