JOHANNESBURG - Eskom Holdings said it has suspended the managers of two of its biggest generating plants as the country suffers record electricity outages.
Eskom suspended the managers of the Kendal and Tutuka plants and asked the acting managers of the Kriel and Duvha plants to return to their original positions, Eskom said in a reply to queries Thursday.
“This action was taken because of sustained poor performance by these plants, which require investigation pending disciplinary action,” Eskom said.
Together the coal-fired plants account for about 14400 megawatts of generating capacity, or about a third of Eskom’s total potential output.
Eskom on Thursday cut 4000 megawatts from grid for much of the day and plans to reduce power availability by 3000 megawatts on Friday as a result of a number of breakdowns at its plants.
Eskom said in a statement that engagements have been held with other power station managers to ensure that the previous culture of weak consequence management will no longer be the norm and will no longer be tolerated at Eskom.
The Executive has, in the meantime, deployed three senior Generation managers to the sites in question (Duvha, Kriel, Tutuka and Kendal power stations) to provide leadership and oversight in person.
"The Board and executives are fully cognisant of the substantial strain that loadshedding exerts on the wellbeing of citizens, on an already depressed economy and are committed to attaining sustainability and reliability of the Eskom generation plant. The Board and Executive Management have met twice in the past two days, with the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, to interrogate the systemic causes of the loadshedding and the measures being taken to repair breakdowns," Eskom further stated.
BLOOMBERG