Coal swapping continues to be a huge problem: De Ruyter

Eskom’s outgoing CEO, Andre de Ruyter says that coal swapping continues to be a huge problem at the power utility.

He says that this is a continuing crisis that hinders the power stations performance because of the sub-grade coal supply.

De Ruyter says the power utility has identified over 50 coal swapping stations in and around Mpumalanga.

He was speaking in one of the sessions at the Mining Indaba held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

De Ruyter says, “We have shut down or the police have shut down three illegal coal blending sites. From what I understand, there are 30 more blending sites and to think that there are 30 more that are targeted and just the fact that there had been 33 coal blending sites in Mpumalanga, where essentially coal is stolen and we are supplied with discarded coal that doesn’t burn so well, which messes with your coal mills and in terms of emissions.”

De Ruyter has reiterated that the power utility is in urgent need of additional capacity.

He says in fact Eskom has been in need of the extra generation capacity since 1998.

Eskom continues to grapple with supplying South Africa with reliable and stable electricity.

Eskom is imposing stage three loadshedding during the day and stage four in the evenings until further notice.