Eskom power deals with neighbours ‘are flexible’
Eskom said on Tuesday that it had signed a power supply agreement with its Zimbabwean counterpart Zesa, but said the agreement allowed for flexibility during emergency situations in South Africa.
In a statement issued on Tuesday morning, Eskom said it is a member of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), as is Zesa, where member utilities sell surplus electricity to each other depending on the need.
The statement added: “We are aware that our responsibilities to supply our neighbouring countries may create an apparent conflict when the domestic supply-demand balance is constrained.”
But, Eskom added, power supply agreements with SAPP trading partners were “sufficiently flexible to allow for … controls during emergency situations in South Africa”.
The power supplier said “discretionary agreements” with Zimbabwe and Zambia could be declined in advance in anticipation of a tight supply situation at home, “non-firm agreements” with Botswana and Namibia could be reduced to zero and and supply to international industrial end-use customers could be interrupted.
In the case of “firm supply agreements” with Swaziland and Lesotho they would continue to be supplied, although they would be required to undertake proportional load shedding.
Eskom is supplying Zimbabwe with 300 megawatts of power a day.