Wet Coal A Major Reason For Outages

Wet coal doesn't burn. It clogs up crushing plants, breaks conveyor belts and turns to mud-like sludge."Wet coal doesn't work, it's not good for us," said Tutuka power station manager Ryno Lacock. - Louise Flanagan writing for The Star

The power station (coal-powered) that provides as much as 10% of South Africa's electricity needs is struggling to reach optimum output levels because of wet coal. Why is the coal wet? Because we have been seeing unusual amounts of rain over an abnormally long period of time.

Once again we see the weather having a completely unpredictable direct effect on our lives. Commentators who write so blithely about the weather having no impact (other than a benign one) are gravely mistaken. Climate change implies a situation of flux, of uncertainty, of unpredictability becoming inherent in the system. Sure, climate is somewhat dynamic to start off with. But with enough heating, these patterns break down and become more chaotic. Any fool ought to know that when you add enough heat to a system, the particles move faster and eventually, more randomly (think of boiling water, fire, explosions), leading to destructive reactions.

Climate change can reasonably be expected to lead to uncertainty regarding crop productions, and our ability to contain infectious diseases (usually limited to specific areas based on patterns of rain and temperature). With energy resources and already under strain and food prices surging, now is not the time to have the added burden of food limits and the strain of diseases breaking out in unusual and unpredictable patterns.

Nevertheless, this is the world we live in, and now that the heat is on, we will see the system become increasingly unstable.

For background on 'wet coal', go here.
Wet coal threatens Eskom power output