I guess the true test/answer will be in individual plant stats somewhere in the future (single digit presence of migratory birds and patterned change in atmospheric conditions come to mind) . Eskom’s overall EAF for me is not that useful a metric for this either.
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That fewer boilers and other damages are happening less at power stations … whatever the reason … I stick to the meddling having stopped by decree from someone/s up high that was maybe fingered in AdR’s reports/media/book… the cool weather and efforts on the ground giving us a reprieve for now.
That it is being “sold” to SA as a “win”, the new “message”.
Where all the doomsday prophets are now with the “Winter is coming”, leaves me flabbergasted.
The quietness in all media outlets on what is potting really … as interesting.
Scares the dinges out of me if individuals in high places “spoke” and this hell SA went through, suddenly just stopped overnight.
And if I have all of this wrong, “they” are just running it maxed out, the equipment and staff, and bugger caution, all due to fewer breakages for reasons I suspect, networks still happily plundering … o my … when LS then returns with a vengeance, man, that would not be good for morale on the ground.
I posited that this apparent condition improvement was because of an APB to cease all nefarious operations.
But there is a world of difference between:
“Stop breaking things”
and
“Stop things breaking”
I am flattering the cabal even to have the competence to run an organized crime syndicate and achieve the first directive. They cannot achieve the second.
Organized crime can work very VERY efficiently and effectively with the right “leader” in charge, having installed the right “management structure”.
So can a legitimate organisation like an SOE.
I think it is the same people that run both though, Jekyll and Hyde?
In SA’s case, I think the legitimate people installed at the SOE’s have lost against the organized crime syndicates. So there were a few whistleblowers, and media reports.
You cannot fight the good fight if the company is under the control of said masterminds.
IF that tide was turning, has turned, there would have been a LOT of prominent arrests, court cases, and incarcerations. Monies flowing back to SA.
Never underestimate the ingenuity of organised criminal minds. They can be as clever as anyone else, just playing for the opposing team.
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Eskom … is there ANY chance? In CPT there is.
Well, if the semigration to Slaapstad continues unabated, the broader Western Cape may have a growing power provision problem, and I optimistically observe whether the DA is getting ahead of that with some forward thinking.
Time to call a spade a spade…
When Makwana and the ANC take credit for solving the Eskom and EAF woes, the gullible masses will likely have missed that an increasing amount of the demand being removed from Eskom, which may allow Eskom to perform more planned maintenance, is being funded by private industry and individuals who are desperate to continue with a normal life and making an income.
And the consequences of foreign pressure to exports, foreign grants and visas tightening up due to the ANC’s allegiances will just be another rock on the back of industry that depends on exports.
We’re now paying largely with post-tax money for three decades of government policy failure, strategic planning vacuum, decimated education standards, and at an operational level (Eskom and every other SOE and municipality) - poor maintenance and inability to perform maintenance due to lack of resources, looting (spares, fuel, bla bla), corruption, a bloated wage bill and headcount, and so forth. All things said, a catastrophic management failure for decades, so how can they declare that their new management shuffle at Eskom will produce anything constructive?
I am told by a banking exec who has worked with Makwana that he is competent, but I believe his declaration that the energy availability factor will be 70% by 2025 may only be achievable if there’s a massive increase in the nation weening themselves off the risk of grid-dependance, and less so that Eskom and the ANC have got their $#!t together.
Blowing smoke up our arses and declaring that blackouts have eased in recent weeks because of the change in the power utility’s management structure is patronising when key, competent individuals have capitulated or been threatened into leaving in droves. The brain drain from Eskom is very real and the aggregate competence is being diluted. There’s just no way in hell that this can be offset by a miracle chairman and [yet another] management shuffle.
Thankfully there are still many smart, hard-working, competent people at Eskom who continue admirably under what must be miserable conditions. These folks should be applauded the way medical staff were during the height of the Covid pandemic.
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Nope, won’t happen… The trend is in the opposite direction, look at the data. This is over a multi year period and past behaviour is indicative and points to future behaviour. The plant is old, was not maintained over a few decades, and being sabotages to beet, it ain’t goner go up…
AfGroetnis
Right, this just in … from WATT the F#CK? by Ferial Haffajee.
I quote HER entire article …
The first slide shows that Eskom is doing less maintenance – a usual practice in winter. Demand is lower (probably because so many humans and businesses have left the grid). Private-sector support teams are in place at power stations. And Eskom is going solar. This is a good-news slide.
The second slide shows that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to lift the energy cap on private generation is working. Look at the jump in energy projects this year. It’s an unstoppable energy revolution (other than, of course, the thorny issue of grid access). See next slide.
So, this year 1,300MW could come onto the grid and 3,081MW next year. In terms we will understand, that is four stages of load shedding. As I said last week, our hell has an end. The chart on the right shows grid capacity. The long journey now is how to wheel the new energy onto the grid.
This slide maps renewable projects. What I enjoyed seeing is that Eskom is working with the renewables sector. Great news.
This slide is technical but its core meaning is that the death choke of bureaucracy is being loosened. Timeframes have been brought forward.
This is a clip from the business-government energy partnership. Businesses have sent engineers, project managers and other key skills to power stations that need them.
Can also see the “other side” … still maintain that something happened because of AdR’s accusations of senior ANC people being involved … and this sudden brighter outlook.
Clever criminal/s know when to stop … and wait for new “feeding grounds”.
Like maybe the expansions of Eskom’s distribution lines throughout SA … when that gets off the ground.
Clever criminal/s know when to stop … and wait for new “feeding grounds”
Maybe that is why the NHI bill passed with speed…
Read that, to be fully implemented, can take like 10-15 years … and a LOT can change from now to then IF SA has sorted the politics… IF we get there.
I believe Ferial identifies as a woman.
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My bad … fixed
She is quite a mover.
Yes, she has street cred.
I shall solve the mystery of this exchange…
Edit:
not to worry TTT, plonkster also decided to be woke and assign the system operator alternate pronouns 
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Well, I always misread her name as “Feral”…
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Fixed.
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I have NO idea how they are going to afford any of that in the next 10-15 years, as more and more renewables come online, and not via Eskom.