Eskom: Thermal Coal Stockpile

Eskom is planning to reach 42 days of thermal coal stockpile, before the 2010 World Cup starts!

A shortage of good quality coal contributed to the electricity blackouts experienced during the January/February 2008 period, causing great inconvenience and considerable harm to the South African economy.

On 29 January 2010, Parliament’s Public Enterprises Standing Committee called on Eskom and leading coal suppliers to brief it on the security of supply; before the advent of the 2010 World Cup and the onset of winter.

Brian Dames, head of power generation at Eskom, said that Eskom had a comprehensive coal-sourcing strategy in place to reduce reliance on short-term supplies and had accordingly, set a target of building up a 42 days coal stockpile before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to be held during June/July 2010.

Due to the already visible economic upturn, a year-on-year electricity usage growth of 9% was recorded in January 2010. Despite this growth in consumption the current stockpile averaged on 36 days supply. Dames said that this reinforced the need to ensure the long-term security of supply. Large private sector investments in coal mining were urgently required to recapitalize existing mines and develop new mines to meet Eskom`s future requirements.

During 2009, Eskom used 129-million tons of thermal coal; it is anticipated that this will rise to 141-million tons by 2018. Dames estimated that an investment of R100billion was needed in new and existing mines. If this was achieved it would also alleviate another big problem facing Eskom - the declining quality of thermal coal extracted from the old mines.

Pieter Rautenbach | Projects Facilitator