Andre de Ruyter wants credit for Eskom miracle

Former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter wants credit for restarting the positive momentum at the utility, which has translated into a substantial reduction in load-shedding in South Africa. 

De Ruyter infamously oversaw record levels of load-shedding during his tenure and unceremoniously resigned from the top job due to a lack of political support. 

In the years since his departure, Eskom has made a significant turnaround, with the utility being able to keep load-shedding at bay for extended periods of time. 

The utility’s management puts this down to improved staff morale, intense maintenance, and the implementation of the Generation Recovery Plan. 

Some credit also goes to the private sector, which has invested heavily in adding new generation capacity to South Africa’s grid. 

De Ruyter wants some credit for creating this momentum, which he believes continued after his departure and played an important role in getting the utility to where it is today. 

“I took on a pretty tough job, and I gave it my best effort. I really worked hard to try to make it a success. I think that I started to put some momentum back into the system,” De Ruyter recently told the second annual BizNews Investment Conference. 

De Ruyter explained that running a large organisation can be relatively easy once it has positive momentum, with legacy systems and procedures ensuring things run smoothly. 

Eskom is in a league of its own in terms of scale in South Africa, with the utility having had an effective monopoly over the electricity sector for the past century. 

When De Ruyter assumed the top job at Eskom, he found that the momentum had completely gone from the utility, with procedures and systems not working as they should. 

“A large organisation is like a flywheel. Once that flywheel has come to a complete standstill, it takes a huge amount of energy to get it moving again,” De Ruyter said. 

This is what the former Eskom CEO wants credit for, with his efforts in the top job being spent on getting the flywheel to begin turning. 

“Once it moves, you just need to give it a tap every now and then to keep the momentum going. But, to get it moving takes an enormous effort,” he said. 

“Once that happens, then the process works again. I know I have this association with the Prince of Darkness, but I do think that I made that contribution to getting the momentum back.”

“This is particularly true with regard to the damage wrought by my less-than-illustrious predecessors.” 

Real reasons for no load-shedding

De Ruyter explained to the audience at the conference that the end of load-shedding is due to a confluence of factors. 

This includes the completion of several large generating units, which have recently come online, and Eskom being able to spend significantly more money on diesel. 

Coupled with private investment in new generation capacity, this has enabled the utility to stave off load-shedding for extended periods of time. 

“The end of load-shedding is not a surprise. As a matter of fact, in a previous interview that I did in 2023, I said that load-shedding would end. The math is very simple,” De Ruyter said.

“There was a project to replace the steam generators at Koeberg 1 and 2. That’s two times 920 megawatts. That project is essentially complete and is delivering to the grid.”

This was initiated before De Ruyter’s time at Eskom and so the former CEO said he would not take credit for it. 

In addition to the timing of the Koeberg life extension project, De Ruyter highlighted the problems at Kusile units 1, 2, and 3, which have since been resolved.

“Eskom had issues where the flue gas desulphurisation unit collapsed. Those units were put out of commission. Three times 800 megawatts came back and are now contributing to the grid,” De Ruyter said.

“Kusile 5 and 6 reached beneficial operation. They are now connected to the grid and contributing. Medupi 4, which exploded spectacularly, was put back.”

De Ruyter said returning these units to service was not easy. “So, credit to the hardworking men and women of Eskom for continuing to fight quite a tough fight to get these units back,” he said.

The former Eskom CEO said the impact of the rapid rollout of private solar generation has been overlooked in bringing load-shedding to a near-complete end. 

“What is often omitted is the fact that the private sector, in a period of 18 months, added 6.1 gigawatt. That’s about the size of one-and-a-half Medupis, which took 15 years to build,” he said.

“You can see that every time it’s overcast and cloudy in Gauteng, the system starts to wobble. It’s because of that contribution.”

The third factor that has helped end load-shedding is that Eskom has been allowed to spend much more on diesel than in the past.

This has allowed the utility to run its open-cycle gas turbine power stations much more frequently, despite their cost.

“When I was at Eskom, we were allowed to burn about R5 billion of diesel a year, which is a lot, and I felt bad for it because it’s very, very expensive electricity that we generate,” De Ruyter said.

“The latest budget is sitting in the region of about R23 billion to R24 billion. That’s not affordable. It costs about R6/kWh to generate electricity from diesel. So, if you’ve got unlimited money to throw at diesel, then problems magically go away.”