Eskom will divert power from Billiton whenever demand exceeds capacity

ESKOM has invoked its right to disrupt the power supply to BHP Billiton’s aluminium smelters in the case of an emergency as demand by households showed signs it will exceed the state-owned utility’s capacity to generate enough power this winter.

The demand forecast for the remainder of this week showed South Africa was on the brink of plunging into blackouts similar to those experienced in 2008.

Delays in commissioning the Medupi power plant and maintenance of Eskom’s existing power-generating facilities are largely responsible for reducing the utility’s spare capacity.

In the event of an emergency, Eskom intends to exercise its option to redirect over 2,000MW of power from the Hozatel smelter in KwaZulu-Natal and the Mozal smelter in Mozambique to the grid, as part of a supply agreement that allows it to interrupt the power supplied to the smelters for up to two hours a week, at any given time.

BHP Billiton SA had not yet been informed of how much power would be taken away from it, spokeswoman Lulu Letlape told Business Day on Thursday.

She said it was not yet clear how many of its potlines would be affected by a possible shutdown. If power to smelters is shut down, it forces the plant to operate at reduced capacity and it is usually costly to restart the smelter once power is fully restored.

BHP Billiton is Eskom’s single biggest consumer. In the 1990s, the company signed a controversial power supply agreement at a lower rate than other industrial customers, which Eskom has been trying to have reviewed since 2004 — so far unsuccessfully.

Eskom said on Thursday that it expected demand to peak at 35,364MW last night against the available capacity of 34,9740MW to meet that demand, resulting in a power deficit of 394MW.