Meet Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer: A man in SA’s power hot chair

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JOHANNESBURG — With news that Eskom is anticipating to load shed in very early January once more, it appears that the embattled power provider’s dark times are far from over. The organization is saddled with huge financial obligation and incredibly dirty, outdated coal plant technology. It’s a financial catastrophe waiting to occur. But because SA is full of monopolies (plus the ANC federal government is intent on perpetuating them) South Africans sit having a problem that is massive their arms which has been needlessly self-created. But, there are a few a lot more than capable individuals inside Eskom while the COO Jan Oberholzer seems to have a feeling of rationality pertaining to the continuing future of the power company that is state-owned. In this meeting, EE writers’ Chris Yelland and Roger Lilly swept up with him. – Gareth van Zyl

By Chris Yelland and Roger Lilley*

A energizing openness by Eskom’s brand new administration has been demonstrated in a special interview with Eskom COO Mr Jan Oberholzer by EE writers. The meeting implemented dramatic developments when you look at the operations of Eskom in 2010, like the decrease into the utility’s generation plant performance, shortages of coal at energy channels in Mpumalanga, the return of phase 2 (2,000 MW) load losing – with rolling blackouts in the united states for per week prior to the Christmas time festive season, in addition to statement because of the COO of a nine-point intend to deal with the functional dilemmas.

Mr Oberholzer, please could you simplify the functions and lines of authority amongst the Eskom CEO, COO, CFO as well as other Eskom Exco people? whom states to who?

Eskom’s new structure is constructed on three pillars: strategy, finance and operations. Generally speaking, CEO Phakamani Hadebe may be the face of Eskom, in charge of strategy, appropriate and business affairs, hr and reputation administration. CFO Calib Cassim is in charge of the funds, liquidity, finance, loans, treasury, assets, real-estate, various help solutions and general control that is financial. As COO, i will be in charge of all Eskom’s operations: generation, transmission and circulation of electricity, main power, coal and water, team money (which include new-build tasks), Rotek Industries, Eskom Enterprises, Eskom Research, Testing & Development (RT&D), danger and sustainability, and others. Eskom has ready A exco that is new organogram and I also will share this with you whenever finalised.

Do you know the biggest dilemmas Eskom that is currently facing problems are you currently in charge of, and exactly just just what keeps you awake during the night?

The largest dilemmas dealing with Eskom are: financial obligation, liquidity and sustainability that is financial individuals problems – with individuals being our vital asset, ensuring sufficient coal materials, decreasing generation plant performance and supply – triggered by planned upkeep outages, unplanned breakdowns and plant operating with reduced production than ranked, and fast-rising municipal and Soweto arrear debt. From my place, my best issues will be the generation that is poor performance, ensuring sufficient coal materials when confronted with high export rates, in addition to danger of rainfall at the moment. Although we involve some 45GW of installed generation capability at our disposal, we actually have actually not as much as 30GW of available capacity – plus the country’s load is more than 30GW. Therefore, for the present time, our company is grateful for the yuletide season where need is paid down. About the individuals problems, my issues are to make certain accountability by line supervisors, and having the best individuals with the proper mixture of abilities into the right spot, specially within generation.

Some will say the functional problems at Eskom could be addressed provided adequate work, money and time, but that the economic and ecological dilemmas presently dealing with Eskom are intractable. Can you concur?

Yes, i really do agree totally that when we are diligent, and then we have the funds plus the right individuals, we are able to resolve the functional issues – no doubt about this. But running in a world of serious monetary constraints, massive financial obligation and quickly increasing municipal as well as worldwide arear financial obligation is a huge challenge, additionally the CFO will be better positioned to comment further with this. On ecological sustainability, you will find huge problems regarding the burning of coal. Can we simply trade our solution of this present situation? No, I believe we’re going to want to do some plain things extremely differently into the method they are done before – structurally, economically and environmentally.

Would you think Eskom are gone back to its previous glory, or perhaps is this a backward looking pipe-dream in the basically changed and changing realm of power?

No, I usually do not think days gone by may be recaptured with Eskom keeping its form that is current as vertically incorporated monopoly. Can Eskom enhance its reputation, performance and self-confidence? Yes, I think we could, but we now have plenty of strive to do in order to accomplish that, including training and abilities development. The whole world has changed dramatically since those previous times, and you will find pressures for improvement in the vitality sector. The existing framework as a vertically incorporated company and solitary electricity customer may possibly not be the most readily useful framework and business design for future years, and pressure from industry w209
ill force Eskom to alter to fit the realities that are new. Our president, Mr Jabu Mabuza, has recently stated that the Eskom operations of generation, transmission and circulation might in the future be ring-fenced and addressed as independent devices with a company focus, with line supervisors empowered to really make the decisions that are necessary success, and held in charge of the outcomes.