The power utility said that several outdated power stations would be decommissioned over the next decade, but the company will be adding capacity to the grid at the same time.
FILE: The Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, about 30km from the centre of Cape Town. Picture: AFP
CAPE TOWN – Eskom wants to extend the life of the Koeberg nuclear power station by two decades as part of its long-term strategy.
The power utility said that several outdated power stations would be decommissioned over the next decade, but the company will be adding capacity to the grid at the same time.
Eskom on Thursday briefed on the state of the system.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said that the company is working hard to increase capacity to limit load shedding.
He said that several power stations would be decommissioned over the next ten years amounting to over 11,000MW.
However, Eskom was working on other initiatives to help keep the lights on, like extending Koeberg’s lifespan.
“We’re also doing work to extend the life of our nuclear power station at Koeberg, the only nuclear power station on the African continent, for a further two decades and the milestone achievement of the past month has been the arrival of the first of six new steam generators which are a critical part of converting nuclear energy into electricity.”
De Ruyter said that the maintenance of existing plants remained a priority.
“We have stepped up our reliability maintenance programme to the point where we now have some 14% of our units undergoing maintenance.”
