Eskom facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Eskom

Type	Public utility
Traded as	JSE: BIESKM
Industry	Energy
Founded	1 March 1923; 102 years ago (1923-03-01)
Headquarters	Sunninghill, Sandton, South Africa
Key people	Mpho Paul Makwana (Chairman)
Services	Electricity generation, transmission and distribution
Revenue	R 204.3 billion (FY2021) US$ 13.82 billion
Net income	R-18.9 billion (FY2021) US$ -1.28 billion
Total assets	R 781 billion (FY2021) US$52.84 billion
Number of employees	42,749 (FY2021)
Subsidiaries	List Amazing Amanzi (Pty) Ltd EON Solutions Africa (Pty) Ltd Escap SOC Limited Escap Ltd Eskom Enterprises (Pty) Limited Eskom Enterprises Global West Africa Eskom Finance Co (Pty) Ltd Eskom Finance Company SOC Limited Eskom Uganda Limited Gallium Insurance Co. Ltd Golang Coal (Pty) Ltd Hem-kom Live Line Engineering(pty) Limited Mountain Communications (Pty) Ltd PN Energy Services (Pty) Ltd Rosherville Vehicle Services (Pty) Ltd Rotek Industries (Pty) Limited South Dunes Coal Terminal (Pty) Ltd Technology Services International (Pty) Ltd Ted (Pty) Ltd The Natal Navigation Colliers & Estate Company Limited Trans Africa Projects (Pty) Ltd Transpoint (Pty) Ltd

Eskom is a big company in South Africa that provides almost all the country's electricity. It was started in 1923 and is known as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM). Eskom is the largest electricity producer in Africa. It also represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool, which helps share electricity across southern African countries.

Eskom runs many important power stations. These include Matimba Power Station and Medupi Power Station, Kusile Power Station, Kendal Power Station, and Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. Koeberg is the only nuclear power plant in Africa.

Eskom has three main parts:

• Generation: This part makes the electricity.
• Transmission: This part sends electricity through large power lines across the country.
• Distribution: This part delivers electricity to homes and businesses.

Eskom makes about 95% of South Africa's electricity. This is about 45% of all electricity used in Africa. However, Eskom also releases a lot of greenhouse gas emissions into the air. These gases can harm the environment.

Since 2008, Eskom has sometimes had to switch off power in different areas. This is called "load shedding" or "rolling blackouts". It happens when there isn't enough electricity for everyone. Building new power stations has been slow and expensive, which has caused problems for Eskom. Because of its large debts and power problems, the government decided in 2019 to split Eskom into three separate companies.

At a big meeting about climate change in 2021, many countries agreed to help South Africa switch from using coal for electricity to using renewable energy. This is a big step towards a cleaner future.

How Eskom Started and Grew

The Congella Power Station, finished in 1928, was one of the first power plants built by Eskom.

Before Eskom was created, cities and private companies provided electricity. For example, Kimberley was one of the first cities to have electric streetlights in 1882. This helped make the city safer at night. Cape Town also got electric streetlights in 1895.

Eskom was officially started in 1923 by a special law called the Electricity Act of 1922. This law allowed Hendrik van der Bijl to become its first chairman. In 1987, the company changed its name to Eskom, combining parts of its old names.

The Electricity Act said that Eskom should only sell electricity at the cost of making it. It also didn't have to pay taxes. Eskom got money to build things by borrowing it. The first power stations Eskom built were the coal-fired Congella Power Station in Durban and Salt River Power Station in Cape Town, both finished in 1928.

In 1935, Eskom built a large coal power plant in Witbank to provide power for mines. After World War II, South Africa faced power shortages. Eskom had to make agreements with mines to save electricity.

Growing Bigger: 1960-1994

Arnot Power Station, completed in 1975, was one of the first "six-pack" coal power plants Eskom built.

Between 1960 and 1990, Eskom greatly increased how much electricity it could produce. It went from 4,000 MW to 40,000 MW! This was to keep up with South Africa's fast economic growth. During this time, Eskom also built a huge network of power lines across the country.

Eskom built many large coal-fired power plants. These plants were so big they could make electricity very cheaply. People called them "six-packs" because they had six large generator units.

In 1974, Eskom was told to start building the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. This plant would provide power to Cape Town and help with South Africa's nuclear program.

In the 1970s, Eskom wanted to increase electricity prices to pay for its big expansion plans. The government asked Dr. W.J. de Villiers to look into Eskom's finances. He suggested that Eskom should be allowed to make a profit and borrow money from other countries. Eskom also reduced its number of employees during this time.

After 1994: A New Focus

After the democratic elections in 1994, Eskom changed its focus. It worked on bringing electricity to homes that didn't have it before. It also aimed to provide cheap electricity to help the economy grow.

In the late 1990s, the government considered selling parts of Eskom. Because of this, Eskom's requests for money to build new power stations were turned down. Later, a former president said this was a mistake that caused problems for the country.

Construction work on the Medupi Power Station (pictured) and Kusile Power Station started after 2007 to help solve the energy crisis.

Power Problems and New Plants: 2007-Today

In 2006, Eskom started "load shedding" in the Western Cape because of issues at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant. In 2008, load shedding began happening across the whole country. This is when Eskom turns off power in different areas on a schedule to prevent the whole power system from failing. Eskom has tried to encourage people to save power during busy times to reduce load shedding.

After the power shortages in 2007, Eskom started a big plan to build more power stations. The government decided to build more large coal-fired power plants, similar to the "six-packs" from before.

In 2016, Eskom said it wanted to build more nuclear power plants. They even started training people to become nuclear operators. However, in 2018, Eskom said it couldn't afford new nuclear plants because its profits were down and its costs were up.

In 2019, Eskom had another round of load shedding. They said it was because power stations were breaking down and they were running out of water and diesel. Other reasons included past problems and the fact that new power plants like Medupi Power Station and Kusile Power Station were not fully working yet. These power shortages caused the country's economy to shrink.

In December 2019, the president and other leaders met with Eskom to discuss the power crisis. The president mentioned that some blackouts were caused by damage at the Tutuka Power Station. He announced plans to stop load shedding. In early 2020, the chairperson of Eskom's board resigned. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, power supply was stable because people used less electricity. But in July 2020, load shedding started again. In 2023, the country faced very bad blackouts, with power cuts lasting up to 12 hours a day.

Eskom's Logos

Eskom's logo has changed a few times over the years.

• In 1986, Eskom briefly had no logo as it moved from its first design.
• The 1987 logo had a blue shield with a lightning bolt.
• The current logo, from 2002, replaced the shield with a circle but kept the lightning bolt.

• 

  1923

• 

  1987

• 

  2002

Changing Eskom for the Future

In 1998, a government report suggested splitting Eskom into separate companies for making and sending electricity. This idea was meant to improve power supply, but it wasn't put into action then.

In 2019, the president announced that the government would split Eskom into three new state-owned companies: one for making electricity, one for sending it, and one for distributing it. This was to help manage Eskom's serious problems with money and operations. At that time, Eskom had a huge amount of debt.

The government said Eskom was in a very difficult financial situation and needed more loans to keep working. The Finance Minister announced that the government would give Eskom a large amount of money over three years to help stabilize it.

Sending Electricity Across the Country

As part of the changes, a new company called the National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) was created. This company will be in charge of the power lines that send electricity from power stations to where it's needed. It will manage thousands of kilometers of power lines. Eskom plans to build even more power lines in the next 10 years to improve the system.

In 2023, the NTCSA was approved to operate the electricity transmission system in South Africa.

How Many People Get Electricity from Eskom?

Eskom is the only electricity provider in South Africa. It has over 16 million customers, which is about one-third of the country's population.

Where Eskom Gets Its Power

Eskom uses different types of power stations to make electricity.

Power from Fossil Fuels

Eskom has many power stations that use fossil fuels, mostly coal. These are some of them:

Power from Renewable and Nuclear Sources

Eskom also uses cleaner ways to make electricity, like water, wind, and nuclear power.

Eskom's pilot wind farm at Klipheuwel in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Future Plans for Power

Eskom has plans to build more power stations in the future, including:

• Tubatse Pumped Storage Scheme – 1500MWe (uses water)
• Wind 500 – 550MWe (uses wind)
• Tasakoolo Wind farm 200 – 200Mwe (uses wind)

Investing in Green Energy

Eskom is starting to invest in solar energy. They plan to install new equipment to distribute solar power to some power plants. A big investment forum has also raised over $40 billion to help South Africa develop more renewable energy projects. This is to help the country move away from coal power plants and focus more on wind and solar energy.

These new investments fit with South Africa's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP).

South Africa's Energy Plan

The IRP is a plan that supports using different types of energy. It aims to help South Africa reach its energy goals. The plan focuses on developing renewable energy sources. This means investing in more efficient and cleaner technologies, especially solar and wind power. The IRP plans for a lot of new solar and wind power, and also more hydroelectric power (from water).

Moving Towards a Greener Future

With problems at coal power plants, South Africa is looking towards a greener future. The country has agreed to the Paris Agreement, which means it needs to reduce its carbon emissions and depend less on coal. There's a new US$11 billion Green-Energy Initiative. This plan will give loans to Eskom to help it close old coal power plants faster and build new renewable energy structures. This is a big step towards using cleaner energy for the future.

How Eskom is Run

Eskom executives, including CEO Phakamani Hadebe (front row, second from left), at a public meeting in 2019 about Eskom's money problems.

Over the years, there have been many changes in Eskom's leadership. In 2018, many of the people in charge at Eskom were replaced by the government. This was because of problems with how the company was managed.

Phakamani Hadebe became the acting CEO in May 2018. He resigned a year later, saying the job was very difficult. After him, André de Ruyter became CEO. He resigned in 2022. It was even reported that he survived a poisoning attempt after drinking coffee that had poison in it.

Eskom's Money Situation

In 2018 and 2019, Eskom's money problems became very serious. The company was spending more money than it was earning. For a short time in March 2019, Eskom almost ran out of money, which could have badly affected South Africa's economy. The situation improved when Eskom got a loan. In July 2019, Eskom announced a big financial loss. This was due to the high cost of its debts and unpaid bills from municipalities.

Eskom has a very large amount of debt. Because Eskom is so big and important for the country's electricity, the president said it was "too big to fail". This means the government has to keep funding it, even with its serious money problems.

In February 2023, the government announced it would provide Eskom with a large amount of money to help reduce its debt. The goal is to bring Eskom's total debt down to a more manageable level.

See also

• Cahora Bassa (HVDC)
• Eskom Centre
• XMLVend
• Hendrik van der Bijl – founder and first chairman of ESCOM (Eskom)
• South African energy crisis

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