Eskom has paid R9.7bn in penalties on Medupi coal contract

South African electricity utility Eskom, which is battling to come across money to maintain its turbines working, paid billions of rand in penalties on a coal agreement at 1 of its most recent plants.

The payments on Eskom’s take-or-fork out contract at the Medupi plant for the dirtiest fossil gas reached R9.7 billion in November, the company told parliament’s Standing Committee on Community Accounts on Tuesday. The utility’s prior makes an attempt to renegotiate the agreement with Exxaro ended up turned down by the mining firm.

A coal stockpile at the site stood at 17.6 million tons at the end of November, the utility claimed. “Eskom will, so, incur additional get-or-shell out penalties if Medupi Electricity Station simply cannot burn off the bare minimum contractual volumes.”

A spokesman for Exxaro declined to comment.

Medupi and Kusile are the most recent coal-fired facilities owned by Eskom, but delays and defects at the crops have stifled their nearly 9 600 megawatts of combined potential, leaving the nation additional susceptible to ability outages.

Eskom also claimed that negotiations for Kusile’s coal provide with Seriti Methods are advancing and the get-togethers agreed to a 3-12 months offer offer as they get the job done on a 10 years-prolonged contract. The corporation didn’t instantly respond to emailed queries.

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