Eskom to cut up to 12 GW of coal-fired power by 2031

• 2 years ago (2021-08-25)
• David Flin

Africa 306 Coal 282

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South Africa’s Eskom has announced that it will shut down 8-12 GW of coal-fired power plants – around 30 per cent of its current installed capacity – over the next 10 years.

Excluding the newly built Medupi and Kusile facilities, the average age of Eskom’s coal-fired plants is 41 years. It will cost the utility over $20 billion to make the plants compliant with minimum emissions standards. Andre de Ruyter, Chief Executive with Eskom, said: “Taking into account that Eskom does not have this money and that this exercise would not add any generation capacity, this is quite a difficult balancing act.”

Instead, Eskom wants to use its funds to accelerate repurposing of its power plants and actively pursue a share in renewable energy allocation.

“The costs for renewable energy technologies continue to decline and will add generation capacity sooner than other technologies, thus reducing the risk of load shedding,” de Ruyter said.