JOHANNESBURG, Aug 26: South African utility Eskom claims that it ensures power transmission and distribution losses are well below 10 per cent through a mix of energy efficiency initiatives and campaigns.
Brian Dames, the chief executive of Eskom, which is into generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, told that since April 2008 his company has not imposed load shedding.
Dames noted that recovery of dues, prevention of theft and reduction of losses are the responsibilities of the local distributor.
Power theft and non recovery of dues are some of the factors responsible for huge T&D losses pegged at about 30 per cent of transmission in India.
“Eskom began an operational turn around programme that primarily involved implementing an entirely new SAP system, replacing the five systems with a single one, on-time and within budget.”
The ‘Back2Basics’ programme was aimed at simplifying processes and make them more efficient and effective, Dames said.
The utility has also been hiking tariffs regularly and the last increase in April was an average of 16 per cent.
Eskom generates about 95 per cent of power used in South Africa and around 45 per cent of electricity used in Africa, according to its website.
State-owned Eskom’s total energy distribution losses are around 8.25 percent—transmission loss at 3.27 per cent and distribution loss at 5.68 per cent for FY’12.
Eskom spokesperson Hillary Joffe said the company recently also started an SMS campaign, wherein if any one notices power theft, they can send a free text message to a designated number. The initiative is expected to help the firm in keeping a tab on power thefts.
The campaign would cost around 40 million rand.
On the customer side, Dames said Eskom’s business is a mix of wholesale and retail operations.
It directly supplies electricity to industrial and mining sectors, among others. The company also provides power to municipalities and they then supply to households, among others. (PTI)
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