Eskom’s non-compliance on air quality criticised
Speaking at the Annual Southern African Coal Conference, Audat said that state-owned Eskom had missed the December deadline to meet the minimum air quality standards, but addressing the non-compliance was likely to put pressure on supply.
“Eskom either must shut down the non-complying plants, which will result in the loss of 10000megawatts (MW), or the government must help Eskom to find money to reconfigure the non-complying plants. The problem is that the government is not in a position to inject money into Eskom to help,” Audat said.
Eskom has since December requested the Department of Environment Affairs for an exemption on compliance. “If the department says yes, Eskom will get time to address non-compliance. If the department says no, Eskom will shut down 10000MW of energy. If you thought Stage 6 was worse, we will have Stage 10 load shedding once that happens,” said Audat.
The conference heard that the Independent Resource Development Plan (IRP), which was unveiled last year, was negative for the coal industry, because it was likely to reduce coal supply and result in job losses.
Source: iol.co.za
