Cape Town - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said the success in the turnaround at Eskom should be attributed to
stable leadership under CEO Brian Molefe, the execution of its
maintenance plan, financial stability and progress with the build
programme.
“This turnaround approach can be replicated in other
SOCs (state-owned companies) – even outside (the) Department of Public
Enterprises fold.”
There is also “no prognosis” for
load shedding in the winter months, Brown said. “Load shedding has become a
thing of the past and the usage of diesel has also (been) reduced
significantly, with monthly budget reduced from almost R1bn per month to
R40m per month.”
She was speaking during a meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises on Wednesday morning, outlining her department’s strategic and annual performance plans.
Brown said her department is looking towards the African continent as a potential growth area.
To this effect, Eskom will for example be pursuing opportunities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Uganda.
She said she is pleased with the progress Eskom has made in its build programme, such as with the two coal-fired power stations Medupi and Kusile and the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme.
Over the next year, Eskom will focus on the delivery of additional units, cutting costs and strengthening the transmission grid to support the independent power producer (IPP) programme, said Brown. “At some IPPs we don’t have transmission grids to support the programme and we need to work on that.”