Illustrative image: Eskom’s Arnot coal-fired power station. | Eskom workers cut illegal connections.
So, the group, consisting of four German companies, RWE Technology, STEAG, KWS Energy Knowledge, Dornier Power and Heat, went off to examine what exactly was going wrong at Eskom’s coal power stations and submitted their findings in September last year.At this point, the report got stuck, presumably because its findings were embarrassing. Two organisations promptly submitted Promotion of Access to Information requests for the report.
So what might this report contain? We know a little bit already, partly because many of the problems were mentioned in former CEO André de Ruyter’s book,editor Alex Parker wrote in a column some of what will be in the report after talking to the authors late last year. Please don’t hold your breath, but between 2009 to 2021, Eskom’s Tutuka and Duvha had an average EAF of 64% and 56%, respectively. Wansley and Scherer had an average EAF of 90% and 89%, respectively, over the same period. The EAF of the American plants got better over the years.