Board supports strategy to turn Eskom around

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Pretoria - The Eskom Board has expressed support for the overall strategy by executive management to turn the company around.

The power utility’s Board of Directors led by Interim Chairperson Zethembe Khoza expressed its support on the strides made by executive management in turning around the company’s operational and financial performance, and the overall strategy of sustaining this momentum.

Speaking following a two-day board induction session whereby Eskom’s key performance targets were assessed, Khoza said the power utility has not implemented load shedding for the past 23 months.

On Wednesday, he said the plan is to continue implementing appropriate levels of planned maintenance to ensure long-term plant reliability.

The reduction in unplanned outages contributed to improvements of plant availability and the resultant sharp reduction in the usage of open cycle gas turbines.

“In terms of Eskom’s existing Generation Sustainability Strategy, our aim is to achieve 80% plant availability, 10% planned maintenance and 10% unplanned maintenance over the medium-term. The adherence to regular scheduled maintenance is managed through the Tetris planning tool which schedules outages based on forecasted demand and maintenance requirements.

“A key aspect of this includes having a strict winter and summer maintenance budget that comprises 8.5 GW for winter and 11.5 GW for summer,” said Khoza, who was appointed following the resignation of former board chairperson Ben Ngubane.

Khoza welcomed the continued drive by Eskom’s Interim Group Chief Executive, Johnny Dladla, to meet with all of Eskom’s critical stakeholders, including employees, in an effort to not only share executive management’s vision, but to also understand the needs of these stakeholders.

On Monday, the Interim Group Chief Executive, who was appointed to the post in June, accompanied by his executive management team met with the company’s senior and middle management stratum and emphasised Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown's and the Board's mandate and expectations.

Last week, the acting Group Chief Executive said the power utility will address issues raised by Minister Brown. These are the management of contracts; conflict of interests; and the quality of coal supply.

Dladla is expected to hold similar engagements with other stakeholders in the next few weeks. – SAnews.gov.za