Eskom suffering power-ful brain drain

Eskom and the government should be working hand in hand to address achieving energy efficiency. Eskom is currently busy with the Grade 1 approach to problem solving, which is: we need more power, build more power stations.

First of all, against the backdrop of a worldwide recession, and rising energy costs, we're unlikely to be needing more power after all. By all means, de-mothball some of those existing power stations. They are already there, use them. Why the hell build more coal-fired stations though? Why are nuclear power stations not being rolled out?

The second area is that the government needs to address South Africa's overall lack of energy efficiency. South Africa is not only one of the most wasteful consumers of electricity, but also per capita one of the world's top emitters of CO2. Failure to consider these issues by simply redeploying more coal-fired plants is incredibly short-sighted and narrow-minded. Our lack of vision happens to be the reason we're in the mess to begin with. Think people.

clipped from www.businessday.co.za WITH construction of two major coal-fired power stations under way, Eskom is investigating another in the Waterberg area of Limpopo, according to a notice for comments on an environment impact assessment issued earlier this week. Camden, Komati and Grootvlei power stations were mothballed because of excess capacity in the late 1980s and 1990s. The stations’ 23 generating units, totalling 3800MW of capacity, are scheduled to be operational by October 2011. The power utility is also close to announcing the outcome of the bid for the construction of a new nuclear power station.