Johannesburg – Eskom’s head of generating units Rhulani Mathebula said that the utility to find a better way of dealing with the old infrastructure at its power stations.
South Africa will face another day of rolling blackout as technicians are working to return many units that have gone offline due to a constrained system.
The power utility said load-shedding would kick in from 8am on Wednesday morning and would last until 10pm.
Eskom said that power cuts were not as a result of cold weather but had much to do with its equipment.
Mathebula said that much like South Africans, the utility was equally concerned about the failure of power plants. He said that they needed to reinvent the wheel and come up with effective ways of servicing the ageing equipment.
“What is not well is the high numbers of failures that we are seeing versus our own predictions on the amount of work and processes that we have put in place.”
He added that they did not have a shortfall of skills but the challenge they were facing was in dealing with unreliable infrastructure.
“We’ve also got our OEMs who are supporting us in this, the companies that designed thee boilers are supporting us in maintaining them as well.”
Eskom has been assuring South Africans for many years that it would get its house in order but has continued with load shedding.
