You can always count on Ted Blom, who serves on the Presidential Task Team on Eskom, for a good soundbite.

He’s the bloke who said that Eskom’s plans to limit load shedding to stage one were “ignorant and ill-informed”, and he’s been popping up on various news stations as the go-to energy expert.

Although we haven’t been hit by load shedding for a while now, it remains one of the elephants in the room, and we’re nowhere near solving any of the SOE’s problems.

According to Ted, who spoke on Tuesday at a panel discussion at African Utility Week, we’re long past the point of salvation.

Reporting below via Fin24:

“Eskom’s governance has collapsed. We don’t know who is running Eskom because it certainly does not look like it is the board. All it can be is a third force,” said Blom. “We simply do not know who is held responsible because it is not maintained properly and not run properly. So, in terms of Eskom of the future – it’s already dead in the morgue. All we are throwing money at is for more people to be corrupt.”

Eskom’s overwhelming debt was a “fallacy”, he said, adding that he had called for a forensic investigation.

“They want you (taxpayers) to pay this debt but 75% of that debt is not due and that is why I have called for a forensic investigation.”

He pointed to the absolute fiasco that is the Medupi power plant, with costs sitting at R170 billion for a half-completed project.

Fellow energy expert and task team member, Dr Grove Steyn, also spoke at the panel discussion. Sadly, Steyn didn’t exactly paint the prettiest of pictures, either:

“Eskom is indeed in a debt trap. It is now being bailed out by government almost on a monthly basis and even the R3 billion allocated in the budget is not going to be enough to fill the gap and get Eskom out of the debt trap. So, it is quite serious, and it means we will have to start thinking outside the box and find a range of solutions to help ensure – given Eskom’s systemic role in the economy – we do not end up in a situation where we have a full on default on debt.”

…”[The] Eskom of large-scale coal-fired power stations is not the future anymore,” he said, adding that the cheapest power does not necessarily come from large coal-faced power plants but from smaller scale renewables.

“If Eskom is not going to be the only party generating power (in the future), what will Eskom look like? That is an important question we do not have an answer for.”

Renewable energy, man – that’s where it’s at. I know Trump has his fear of wind turbines, but we have no excuses.

Let’s just hope somebody can pull their finger out, because it’s only a matter of when, not if, load shedding is back with a vengeance.

[source:fin24]