Eskom says large power users can now launch their growth plans with confidence, thanks to the utility’s turnaround strategy delivering a surplus amount of electricity to the country.

Speaking at the POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa industry reception event in Johannesburg, Eskom interim group chief executive Matshela Koko said Eskom’s turnaround had delivered an operational surplus energy capacity of 3600MW.

He explained that this, along with its maintenance and build programme, would meet demand increases for the next four years.

“Not long ago we were loadshedding, and now we have significant surplus capacity,” Koko said. “We want to thank the associates and stakeholders who walked this journey with us through difficult times and are helping to make Eskom great again.”

Willie Majola, acting group executive of generation at Eskom, said: “We are saying to big business ‘we are open for business. Let’s power the growth of the South African economy’.”

POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa conference

Koko and Majola were addressing the Southern African power and distribution sector industry bodies and leaders at the planning launch of the 2017 POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa conference and exhibition programme. The event is a pan-African power sector summit, which addresses issues identified by the industry.

Nigel Blackaby, the organiser of the event, said key issues for the conference were discussed this past week. He added that important new trends to feature on the 2017 programme will be decentralised energy solutions, energy storage and the digitisation of power engineering, along with exploiting the power of big data to increase efficiency across the entire power grid.

Eskom will be one of the hosting companies at event. The power utility said: “These are exciting times for the power sector in South Africa. The debates around nuclear and renewables are important and are welcome, as they help raise public awareness of the issues under discussion.”

Students and young power sector engineers will also have an opportunity to showcase their research and development work at the conference.

Blackaby said that the conference is “an event designed by the power industry for the power industry, and it is unique in that it is addresses Africa-specific challenges, while also presenting leading international expertise and technologies as seen at POWER-GEN conferences and exhibitions held internationally”.

• POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa 2017 will be staged from 18 – 20 July at the Sandton Convention Centre. For more information, go to http://www.powergenafrica.com