Cape Town - Eskom has has been granted an exemption from complying with air quality regulations in order to speedily begin temporary repairs of the collapsed chimney system at Kusile power station, which Eskom admitted has been the major cause of elevated load shedding stages since October 2022.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) announced on Wednesday that it had granted Eskom the exemption to amend its atmospheric emission licence, and temporarily bypass pollution regulations at Kusile, but this was subject to certain strict conditions.
In October 2022, electricity supply from Eskom’s coal-fired fleets suffered a massive blow when a flue duct (chimney) at Unit 1 failed and the duct bend collapsed due to excessive weight of slurry deposited in the flue, owing to design defects in the boiler and subsequent adverse operating conditions in Kusile’s flue gas desulphurisation unit (FGD) – which removed sulphur dioxide (SO₂) from flue gases produced.
This resulted in three units at Kusile being shut down, causing Eskom’s coal-fired fleet to lose further generation capacity of 2 160MW, equating to two full stages of load shedding.
Environment Minister Barbara Creecy’s exemption allows Eskom to return this capacity to the grid much sooner than would have been possible, with Eskom planning to construct temporary flues for the units to help return them to service while repairing the common chimney between the three units – and exceed SO₂ emission limits.
Eskom will operate the temporary stacks without the use of the FDG mechanism for a period of 13 months. Creecy said this would result in increased SO₂ emission, in excess of the current applicable limit.
Now Eskom needs to apply to the national air quality officer for a onceoff postponement with the compliance time frames for minimum emission standards for new plants.
Eskom said it welcomed the minister’s decision and was studying the conditions of the document.
Meanwhile, environmental groups warned that it would expose those near Kusile to increased levels of air pollution, causing major health impacts.
The Life After Coal campaign – a joint campaign by the Centre for Environmental Rights, groundWork, and Earthlife Africa Johannesburg – questioned whether a decision to allow Eskom to dump sulphur dioxide from unabated polluting emissions into the atmosphere would meet the requirements of the Constitution.
“Intentionally making people sick and then referring them to the doctor for treatment would be a shocking violation of human rights,” the campaign said in a statement.