SA electricity generators to be audited - Nersa

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) said this week that independent technical audits would be conducted on 12 Eskom power stations to determine the effectiveness of maintenance strategies, assess refurbishment developments and look at emergency preparedness.

Nersa has called for suitably qualified entities to conduct these audits, as well as for proposals for the development of a compliance-monitoring framework for electricity generators in South Africa.

The regulator did not indicate when it expects the audits to start, although it did state that the total project (development of the compliance monitoring framework, as well as the audit itself) was expected to take six months at most from start to finish.

The regulator indicated that the objectives of the proposed framework would be to improve the efficiency of electricity generation, to improve the reliability of generators, to improve the security of supply in the generation of electricity, to ensure economical and sustainable generation systems, to ensure compliance of health, safety and environmental standards and requirements, and to achieve improved communication channels between stakeholders and Nersa.

The objectives of the audit would include the assessment of the level of compliance of Eskom and independent power producers (IPPs) with the generation licence conditions and grid code, to determine the status and effectiveness of the generation's maintenance strategy, new capacity and philosophies, to determine the availability, execution and success of the generations maintenance plan, to determine the effectiveness of the generation's refurbishment and new capacity development and execution, and assess the emergency preparedness of generators.

The audit would need to cover various generations of technology, benchmark with similar international generators, and would also seek to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the outage management programme, as well as determine which indices or technical parameters Nersa may use to effectively monitor compliance with licence conditions.

Once a draft framework is drawn up it would need to be approved by Nersa before the audits are conducted. A report containing all the information from the audit would then have to be submitted to the regulator.

Once the generator has been assessed under the audit, the auditor would have to come up with corrective actions, give an analysis of findings and recommendations, and make a public presentation to stakeholders.

The 13 power stations to be audited are Acacia power station, Arnot power station, Camden power station, Drakensberg pump station, Duvha power station, Gariep hydro electric power station, Grootvlei power station, Hendrina power station, Kendal power station, Koeberg nuclear power station, Majuba power station, and Kelvin power station.

Edited by: Mariaan Olivier