Cape Town - Eskom faces a 17 million tonne coal shortfall by 2017 at its coal-fired power plants, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
The shortfall is anticipated in 2015 at the Matla, Tutuka and Hendrina power stations and in 2016 at the Kriel and Arnot Power Stations, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said in a written reply to questions in parliament.
Earlier in May Fin24 reported that Eskom acting chief executive Brian Molefe dismissed charges that it would be facing "a coal cliff" in the coming years.
At a press briefing ahead of the public enterprises budget vote in the national assembly, Molefe was asked whether Eskom would revise its policy of insisting that black ownership of coal suppliers should be 51% and whether this presented a problem with securing cost-effective coal supplies.
He answered that there was "200 years of coal under the ground" in South Africa and dismissed the idea that the country was facing a coal cliff where it would have short supplies.
Molefe acknowledged that there were a number of coal contracts coming to an end in the next two years, but Eskom was ready to negotiate contracts "that we think are best for Eskom under the circumstances".
"It is not as if South Africa is running out of coal... there will be a lot of coal (supplies)," said Molefe.