NATIONAL NEWS - Eskom general manager for group technical Titus Mathe disclosed to Moneyweb on Friday that the cost to fix “design defects” at Eskom’s new Medupi and Kusile power plants could be as high as R8 billion.
This comes after Eskom CEO Phakamani Hadebe gave a cost estimate of R1.5 billion in November, and Bloomberg reported last week that Eskom had put it at R2 billion in an emailed response to questions.
Speaking at a National Energy Regulator (Nersa) public hearing about Eskom’s application for a tariff increase of 15% per annum for the next three years, Mathe said the Medupi and Kusile units that are in commercial operation are significantly underperforming and might take years to fix.
In a video interview with Moneyweb afterwards. he said the cost could amount to R8 billion. Eskom would try to recover this from the contractor through a claims process that Mathe acknowledged could be lengthy and complex.
