Eskom’s plan to take on the private sector

Eskom plans to compete with private power developers by gradually replacing coal with cleaner technologies as overall capacity grows over the next decade.

The utility, which hasn’t had to resort to blackouts to save the grid from collapsing for more than three months, is looking to expand capacity. 

Eskom will add generation from a solar, wind, hydro, battery, gas and nuclear sources pipeline, Dan Mashigo, its general manager for primary energy, said at a Johannesburg conference on Tuesday.

The overall capacity of the system will increase to 54 GW by 2035 from 48 GW next year.

Coal, which makes up about 83% of the supply, will drop to 48% in 2035, according to the presentation. Still, with 11% from gas and diesel, most of its electricity will be generated by fossil fuels for another decade.