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 Says it will meet power demand during Winter, despite tight supplies 

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State-owned Eskom, which supplies 95% of South Africa’s power, said profit in the year to end-March rose to 13,2 billion rand ($1,58 billion) from 8,4 billion the previous year.  

Eskom has been struggling to raise the money it needs to build plants to avoid a repeat of a crisis that forced mines to shut for days in 2008 at a cost of billions of dollars, but the utility has since turned the corner.  

“We have secured 78% of our 300 billion rand funding programme over the next five years and the rest will come through the roll-out of our bond programme,” Finance Director Paul O’Flaherty said.  

He said the utility would tap international markets when the time was right, although there was nothing imminent for now.  

Eskom has become more financially viable and has introduced steep increases in power tariffs in recent years to move the rates to cost-reflective levels.  

It expects power supply to be tight over the next few years until the first of new power plants comes on stream by the end of next year.

The utility will add nearly 12,000 MW to the grid by 2019, which should relieve tight supplies in the world’s top maker of platinum and ferrochrome.  

In case of a power deficit, the utility plans to use more expensive open cycle gas turbines to avoid blackouts.

Stockpiles of coal, which feed more than 80% of its power plants, were at a healthy 39 days, it said.  

South Africa is in its winter season, which runs from June to August, when power usage is at its highest. Peak demand during this winter is forecast at just under 37,000 MW.   

Eskom’s primary energy costs rose to 46,3 billion rand from 35,8 billion rand due to higher coal prices. Revenue increased to 114,8 billion rand from 91,4 billion rand.  

Comments

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Fri May 24 14:11:48 SAST 2013 ::

Jun 14, 2012

sarmologadi

Gud, now pay your debts, manage ur profits effectively & efficiently and stop ur tarrif increase nonsense, as consumers we cant afford a decent living because of ur increases which affect many areas (levies, food etc...)
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Jun 14, 2012

CheeseBoy

oh WTF! are we being robbed for if profits are all the way into the 60 percent margins?

our govt is lying to us about a lot of things and now this?
we are being robbed by our own govt. this is sad
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Jun 14, 2012

iPhone4

Am printing this come bonus time my sister will pay my money back she got no excuse
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Jun 14, 2012

1tsotsi

Good, now repay back the money that you borrowed from world bank. Hope those profits does not mean so called perfomance bonuses to the top management!!!
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Jun 14, 2012

MD1

Someone please make me understnad this..Eskom seems to brag..i cant call it anything else..BUT everytime its big headlines for how much money Eskom made..their profit..YET..and this is where Im confuse..why do they need to put up the price of electricity every 3 months ?????????????????????? It they have made so much there is no need for the price of electricity to go up..BUT then again it is this Goverment..what else can you expect !!!!!! That CEO is getting a FAT bonus again..and increase..here we must settle for 4%..anyway only in SA !!!!!!!!!!!! This country is one BIG joke !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Jun 14, 2012

MommaC

They don't even have the common courtesy of wearing a mask whilst they rob us.

Strange how the 'load shedding' was immediately cured the minute they got a huge tariff increase. Now watch the big bosses give themselves multi million bonuses
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Jun 14, 2012

mahaika

well done Eskom.....soweto people r buying electricity dis days....lol
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Jun 14, 2012

somaartakeit

very good, then you can start paying off WB debt.
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Jun 14, 2012

Bombay_Mafia

So Eishkom is it Net or Gross and if it is Net why do you still need extra R66 billion?

Lastly, before you help yourselves with KILIMANJARO BONUSES (KBs), you should first start by deducting the money u got from de GOVERNMNET with interest, and then calculate your KBs


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Jun 14, 2012

ngutha

...please reduce the price

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