Cape Town - Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday said steps have been taken to find funds to purchase diesel in order to run the open-cycle gas turbines after Eskom ran out of funds.
Gordhan said 50 million litres of diesel had already been provided by PetroSA following engagement with his department.
He made the statements in reply to an urgent oral question in the National Assembly. DA MP Ghaleb Cachalia had asked whether Gordhan had taken any steps to find the funds to allow Eskom to purchase much needed diesel to keep the lights on and avoid a potential total collapse of the power grid.
The power utility exhausted its budget allocated for diesel for this year, and it had spent almost R7 billion six months into the year.
In reply, Gordhan said he had talked to Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana as a matter of urgency on Sunday about where money could be found.
There was also a meeting between delegations from his department and the National Treasury and a number of options were identified.
“Those options are being evaluated by the Treasury team. We are expecting a response soon in respect of the set of options the finance minister thinks we should pursue.”
His department was in liaison with PetroSA and Eskom on Tuesday to find a way within Eskom’s limited resources to have immediate availability of diesel, Gordhan said.
“By the evening and this morning, 50 million of litres have been found and provided by PetroSA. Some of the litres travelled by pipeline and trucks depending which plants (it was) due for.
“We will discuss further with both ministers of mineral resources and energy and finance how the next consignment can be made available.”
Gordhan said the Eskom board was looking at what needed to be done in respect of the generation side of Eskom’s business.
In July, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced plans aimed at ensuring that generation of energy became a lot more stable and current plants offered optimal energy.
Gordhan said there wasn’t much done in that regard, but the board has been holding meetings with power station managers and discussing targets in terms of load shedding until there were enough megawatts in the next year and the following year. “We will get some definite steps the board is suggesting in stabilising generation next week.”
However, he said the reliability of generation plants was hampering efforts to provide greater stability and certainty to the country.
“It is in that context that Eskom has run out of cash. It budgeted R10 billion for this year but by November 17 it had reached R14.7bn in terms of its requirements.
“We continue to engage with the Treasury and later this week we hope to resolve the question of access to funds.”
Asked if he was prepared to invoke the National Security Act to allow Eskom to be fixed without hindrance, Gordhan said there was a shortage of 4 000 megawatts.
“Until we provide that source of megawatts through renewable and other mechanisms, we are going to be in difficulty as a nation. Our plan is within the 18 months or so we must get out of this crisis.”
No doubt, something needed to change on the generation side of Eskom’s business, Gordhan said. “We will accelerate the procurement of the new generation capacity.”
Asked what would happen if there was no supply of diesel in the country to ensure uninterrupted supply of energy, Gordhan said Eskom was the biggest customer of PetroSA.
“Once we have funding sorted with the Treasury we can get a supplier pipeline arranged,” he said, adding that Petro SA and Mantashe would ensure there was sufficient supplies at all times.
“We are going to do our best to make sure the supplier pipeline remains in place at an adequate level to meet the requirements of Eskom,” he added.
Cape Times