Oberholzer’s Eskom stay cut short as Koeberg outage slips again

Eskom announced late on Monday that its former chief operating officer (COO) Jan Oberholzer is leaving the utility at the end of July. 

This after the utility announced last month that he was appointed on a two-year fixed-term contract to specifically oversee the recovery of three damaged units at Kusile and the steam generator and life-extension project at Koeberg.

These two projects are critical to government’s energy crisis plan to end load shedding.

On the same day, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa expressed deep concern about the progress at Koeberg.

Oberholzer retired from the COO position at the end of April, shortly after former CEO Andre de Ruyter abruptly left the utility following public criticism of the ruling ANC during a televised interview with eNCA’s Annika Larsen. The board decided to scrap the COO position.

Read:
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter leaves with immediate effect
Eskom loses R1bn a month to corruption: De Ruyter
Eskom chair says outgoing CEO De Ruyter behaved ‘reprehensibly’

Oberholzer, however, returned to Eskom last month on contract with these two specific tasks. 

Kusile

The three units at Kusile have been out of service since the chimney of Unit 1 collapsed in October last year and damaged the chimneys of Units 2 and 3, allegedly after Eskom management overruled engineers and ramped up Unit 1’s performance against their advice. 

That deprived the grid of 2 100MW, which represents more than two stages of load shedding. Ramokgopa hopes to have a temporary solution in place by December that will enable Eskom to switch them on again. 

Koeberg

The life-extension project at Koeberg Unit 2 was postponed last year when a building for housing the three used steam generators after their removal was not completed on time. 

Both these incidents happened on Oberholzer’s watch. 

Read:
The inconvenient truth about Kusile
Koeberg life-extension project running late before it even starts
Winter worries: Eskom defers Koeberg steam generator replacement to August 2023

Koeberg Unit 1 was then taken offline in December last year for the replacement of its three steam generators as part of the project to extend its life by 20 years. 

The outage was planned for 180 days but has already been extended more than once. In March, Ramokgopa announced that the extended target date of 23 July would be moved to 13 September.

Moneyweb has now been told the unit is only expected to return to service in late October. Eskom has, however, not yet confirmed this. 

Sleepless nights

A week ago, Ramokgopa said delays at Koeberg were giving him sleepless nights because they had the potential to undermine the successes being scored in the energy plan.

“Koeberg Unit 1 is still out, and I think the team there has not covered themselves in glory in that it’s a significant outage slip, and they keep on postponing the date of return of Unit 1.”

Ramokgopa said during his weekly energy crisis plan update on Monday that his planned meeting with the Koeberg team last week had to be postponed, but he is hoping it will take place this week. “The more we get the info about Koeberg, the more we get very, very worried,” he said. 

Read:
Further delays at Koeberg spell more trouble for Eskom
Eskom needs a ‘fixer’ CEO 
Underinvestment, poor procurement and skills drain plague Eskom

He pointed out that there is an increased risk that Unit 1’s outage, planned to start in November, will overlap with the extended Unit 2 outage.

That will rob the grid of a further 920MW, roughly equal to one stage of load shedding. This must be avoided at all costs, he said. 

300 days for a 52-day job

Sources in the nuclear industry have pointed out that similar life-extension projects have been done globally. While it requires specialised skills, the relevant contractors are experienced.

“Similar operations have been done in only 52 days elsewhere in the world, but normally require 90 days. In South Africa, it takes 200-300 days,” source who asked not to be named said. 

Postponing Unit 2’s outage is not an option since the operating licences of the units expire in mid-2024.

Oberholzer a hero

Meanwhile, trade union Solidarity on Monday night called Oberholzer a hero.

Head of Solidarity Dirk Hermann said Oberholzer’s role will be appreciated by history. “His technical knowledge came at the right time to prevent the implosion of Eskom. He stopped the speed of deterioration at Eskom,” Hermann said. 

Sources within Eskom’s generation division, however, often pointed out that Oberholzer, who came from a true Eskom background and served at the company for long periods in his career, was “a wires man” and not truly familiar with the issues in generation.

Listen to Fifi Peters speaking to independent energy analyst Roger Lilley about progress on government’s energy action plan (or read the transcript): 

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.