Over the next decade, Eskom will need to invest at least R300-billion in new infrastructure, including electricity transmission and distribution lines, according to its Managing Director of System Operations and Planning, Kannan Lakmeeran.

The government’s aim is to connect all South Africans to the electricity grid by 2012 but Lakmeeharan is concerned that Eskom does not have the funding and skills to fulfill this goal.

Although South Africa is now active in regional transmission programmes, receiving some of its electricity from other countries in Southern Africa, through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), the interconnectivity can cause supply problems if the problem is outside South Africa’s borders.

Lakmeeharan suggested that more private sector investment would help their funding drive.

Reported by Reuters