Trying to keep pace with power needs

Amid growing frustration and anger from consumers, South Africa's power utility, Eskom, has announced plans to address the blackouts that have hit the country over the last few months.

Eskom Chief Executive Thulani Gcabashe said the fault at the Koeberg nuclear power plant, responsible for the disruptions in power supply, was to be fixed in the next four months.

The power station has been shut at least four times since last November, initially because of technical problems on transmission lines, but subsequently due to damage to one of the reactors.

French utility Électricité de France (EdF) has agreed to lend spare parts to fix the damaged reactor, which should be operational by May.

The power cuts have reportedly so far cost businesses in Cape Town, the capital of Western Province, at least US $81 million in lost revenue.

Rolling blackouts continued to plague the province on Friday, and experts are questioning whether, beyond problems with the Koeberg reactor, Eskom has the overall generating capacity to keep pace with South Africa's growing economy.

While Eskom said it has made provisions to keep up with power demands, business and experts have claimed that the parastatal's growth plans were "unrealistic".

Eskom spokesman Fani Zulu said South Africa had four power generators in the pipeline, two of which were to be set up by the private sector. "In the next five years, we also have plans to revive three other power plants, which were mothballed in the 1980s," he added, which should take care of the country's needs until 2010.

Zulu said Eskom had projected an annual growth in demand at "two to three percent" - half the economic growth rate of between five and six percent forecast by most experts.

Economist Jac Laubscher said if the economy was projected to grow at six percent a year, "the demand for electricity would increase by around the same percentage."

He said the accelerating economy had exposed serious constraints in the power sector's ageing infrastructure. "The economy is 35 percent larger than 10 years ago and you are still running on the same infrastructure, then you are heading for trouble."

Eskom said it was planning to spend at least US $940 million on improving generation and transmission in the next five years.

The business sector said they appreciated Eskom's efforts, but warned the plans were "too little and too late".

Peggy Drodskie, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of South Africa said, "It takes at least 10 years to get a power plant operational and reviving mothballed plants is an expensive and long process."