Eskom, the South African electricity utility, is to receive additional government support for its 440 billion rand build programme.
The South African government has pledged to inject 20 billion rand to strengthen Eskom’s balance sheet, ensuring it can complete its programme while remaining financially sound.
The R20 billion injection, originally announced in principle two weeks ago, was confirmed yesterday by Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba.
Commending Eskom on its excellent interim results, Gigaba said: “We will continue to work with Eskom and other stakeholders to ensure that the build programme continues. We will play our part in ensuring that instability is a thing of the past in these (state-owned) organisations.”
“Our new build programme is essential to provide the security of supply that South Africa needs if it is to grow its economy and improve the quality of life of all its people,” said Eskom chief executive Brian Dames in a recent statement.
“This is the largest infrastructure programme South Africa has ever undertaken. We are delighted at the vote of confidence the government has given Eskom. The building blocks are now in place to ensure we have the funding we need to complete the projects we have pledged to deliver over the next seven years.”
Eskom’s capacity expansion projects will add 12,300MW of additional capacity to the national grid between 2012 and 2017. The first of the new two coal-fired stations, Medupi, is expected to come online by the fourth quarter of 2012, while the new pumped storage scheme, Ingula, will come online in mid-2013. Eskom has resumed contracting on Kusile and it expects that the first unit of the 4800MW station will be commissioned by the beginning of 2015.
