Business Report writes that Eskom said on Friday said that independent power producers (IPPs) were not the only factor that led to its decision not to extend the life of a number of its power stations.  This came as anger towards renewable energy over the power utility’s decommission plans festered.  

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), as well as coal truckers, have directed their ire at the IPPs after Eskom said it would shut down five old coal-fired power stations in order to create space for electricity from the IPPs.  But the Integrated Resource Plan 2010-2030 and Eskom’s Transmission Development Plan 2016-2025 are among documents that show that the decommissioning of the power stations have been part of Eskom’s plans for a while.  Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe on Friday said a number of factors, including low economic growth and the IPP capacity, had prompted the utility’s board in November last year to rethink the decision to prolong the life of the power stations and to bring the decommissions forward.

• Read this report by Siseko Njobeni in full at Business Report

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page