[miningmx.com] – ABOUT double the average monthly rainfall in South Africa’s Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng provinces in February and March this year has seriously hampered the delivery of coal to Eskom’s power stations.
The matter came to a head on March 6 when wet coal was supplied to Eskom’s Kendal power station such that Eskom was forced to shut the conveyors resulting in a loss of generating capacity totalling about 3,000MW.
The combination of high maintenance on other parts of Eskom’s fleet, and lower than expected imports from Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa, forced Eskom’s hand which declared a 12 hour programme of national load-shedding. It was a reminder of the vulnerability of South Africa’s power grid.
Zola Tsotsi, Eskom chairman, said recently: “The impression might be created that load-shedding is just about wet coal, but it’s also about limitations on tight system”.
That’s true, but the impact of wet coal, and the hazards of an excessive rainy season in South Africa, are illustrated by the images below which show recent conditions at Exxaro Resources’ Grootegeluk coal mine. Exxaro verified the images were of Grootegeluk.
Grootegeluk, which is situated in the Limpopo province, supplies some 14.8 million tonnes (mt) of its 18.8mt of annual production to Eskom’s Matimba power station on a 7km conveyor belt.
