The running of two power stations in Tshwane, currently virtually mothballed, will be taken over by private companies in November and once refurbished, could see an additional 900 Mega Watts electricity being contributed to Eskom’s national grid.
Pretoria West and Rooiwal power stations will be leased to either one or two companies after 13 multi-national companies had shown an interest in taking over the restoring, refurbishing and running of the power stations, Tshwane executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa announced on Wednesday.
A short-list of four preferred companies to run the power stations will be announced at the end of this month.
Addressing a media briefing in Centurion on Wednesday, Ramokgopa said that Pretoria West power station had a capacity of 300 Mega Watts while Rooiwal’s full capacity was 600 Mega Watts.
“But, the two entities are currently merely being kept going and are running at 15% capacity,” the mayor said.
Ramokgopa said the two power stations would not be sold, but would be leased and that two objectives would be met in doing so.
“Firstly we will raise capital and secondly new and more environmentally friendly technology will be brought to the power stations once taken over by private companies.”
He however said that having the power stations operating at full capacity would have no influence on power supply to Tshwane or load shedding in the metro.
“Unfortunately we cannot keep the electricity for ourselves and will have to place it into Eskom’s national grid,” he said, explaining that Eskom was the only entity allowed to decide on the distribution of electricity in the county.
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