Current issue news: December 2011 Back to previous

Eskom’s footprint in the Free State

Eskom’s footprint in the Free State is evident from the magnitude of its service delivery and investment in the province.

Eskom supplies electricity directly to 233115 customers in the Free State. Of these, 91.03% are residential customers, 0.03% is municipalities and 8.87% are industrial, mining, commercial and agricultural customers.

Eskom in the Free State has revenue of R3.4 billion. Municipalities contribute to 35% of this, while agriculture contributes to 9%, residential to 5%, mining to 42%, commercial to 4%, industrial to 2% and other to 3%.

The demand for electricity in the Free State contributes 4.65% to the national demand of 36 970 MW. The Gariep Hydroelectric Power Station at Gariep Dam is contributing 360MW to the national grid.

47 932 km of lines, 11 transmission substation and 239 distribution substations are spread across the Free State Province. In 2010/2011, the Eskom Distribution division spent R202 million and the Transmission Division spent R1.498 billion on capital expansion and refurbishment in the province. For 2011/2012, Distribution plans to spend R180 million and Transmission, R972 million.

Since inception, 194 602 customers have been electrified. In 2010/2011, 6 040 connections were made at a cost of R33.7 million. 2 377 connections are planned for 2011/12 at a cost of R24.9 million.

Since the 2006/2007 financial year, Eskom's Demand Side Management (DSM) programme has invested more than R267 million in energy efficiency projects in the Free State, specifically related to the municipal, mining and industrial sectors. Programmes within the Municipalities were primarily aimed at three categories, namely energy-saving Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) installation and exchange, solar water heaters and residential load management, e.g. ripple control.

The Free State Provincial Government signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Solar Academy of Sub-Saharan Africa (SASSA) to install 250 000 low pressure solar water heaters in the lower lSM sector at no cost to a municipality or a household. MOA's have been signed with the following Municipalities and the number indicates the units installed to date: Mangaung - 5 738, Moqhaka - 6 000, Ngwathe - 254, Masilonyana - 250. This programme has however, been paused because of limited funding on the Eskom rebate scheme.

The main benefit of the programme is that customers now have free hot water on tap for domestic purposes where they previously needed to boil water making use of electric stoves or other energy sources.

Eskom has three Residential Load Management programmes in the Free State. The one is managed by Centlec for Mangaung Municipality and for some Southern Free State towns. RLM programmes in Maluti-A-Phofung Municipality and Setsoto Municipality have been implemented.

The Integrated Demand Management (IDM) department has used different platforms to work with Municipalities to encourage involvement in IDM initiatives, e.g. the District Energy Forum, an initiative by the Department of Energy focussing on Electrification & Free Basic Electricity.

IDM participated in Free State Government initiatives relating to Energy Efficiency & Climate Change. IDM recently had an exhibition and presented at the Free State Climate Change Summit leading to COP17.

IDM works closely with the Project Management company (Nandi PMC) who acts as an economic advisory body in the Office of the Free State Premier to ascertain areas of possible involvement and/or collaboration.

The Eskom Development Foundation in the Free State is committed to social upliftment through the funding of various developmental projects and to date a total of 14 projects across the province have been supported.

On 19 October 2011 a donation of R200 000 was made to the SA Red Cross to assist members of the Meqheleng Community at Ficksburg whose homes were destroyed by a tornado in October 2011.