Eskom's Plan to Keep the Lights on

As Eskom continues to warn consumers of rotational load shedding, Deputy President David Mabuza has told Members of Parliament that the power utility has developed a detailed turnaround plan to address its challenges."hellipEskom has developed a detailed turnaround plan to address its structural, operational and financial challenges.

"Key to the success of this plan is a focus on driving efficiency and reducing costshellip" Mabuza said when responding to oral questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday. He said some of the initiatives that would be taken include: Optimising primary energy costs through prudent long-term coal sourcing, investment in cost-plus mines and reducing the cost of logistics in terms of moving coal from mines to plants Refining capital efficiency by reprioritising capital expenditure and optimising contract management Driving operational and cost efficiency in procurement Growing revenue with pricing incentives and the pursuit of international sales and other new growth opportunities and Improving workforce efficiency by optimising personnel costs and re-aligning the human resource capacity to match the required performance expectations.

This comes as the power utility continues to buckle under operational and financial strain, with the challenges in recent times leaving Eskom's engineers with no choice but to implement rotational load shedding nationwide. On Tuesday, Mabuza said some of the root causes of the current state of affairs with regard to electricity supply have been the growth of the population and the extension of supply to all South Africans, as well as governance, financial and operational challenges within Eskom.

He said funding constraints within the organisation are resulting in less budget allocations to...