Just for the record, this is how much coal Eskom burnt last year.

Eskom used 2m tons of export coal to ease crisis

Johannesburg – Eskom Holdings bought 2 million tons of export-grade coal last year to try to alleviate the electricity crisis, the state-run utility said on Tuesday.

“Eskom bought approximately 2 million tons of coal whose quality could have been improved to meet export requirements,” it said. “Eskom bought unbeneficiated exportgrade coal.” Beneficiation refers to the processing needed to improve the coal.

Most mines and smelters in South Africa closed for five days last January after the country’s power system almost collapsed, partly because coal stockpiles at some of the company’s plants were nearly exhausted.

Exports from Richards Bay coal terminal fell 6.6 percent last year to 61.79 million tons.

Eskom, which generates about 90 percent of its power from coal, has stepped up purchases of the fuel, increasing stocks at plants to an average of 37 days of use.

While the company’s plants were designed to use lower-grade coal than the fuel that South Africa ships abroad, the utility said last year it was in talks to buy export-quality coal that could be blended with lower grades.

The purchases did not affect shipments from South Africa, the biggest source of the fuel for European power plants, said the company.

Eskom added: “The coal purchased was over and above what was mined for export purposes and was available on the open market.

“The Eskom purchases did not negatively impact on the mines’ ability to export.”

Ben Magara, the head of Anglo American’s coal unit in South Africa, said last February that some equipment had been temporarily diverted to mine coal for the utility rather than for export.

Richards Bay’s exports were hurt by erratic rail deliveries, the terminal said this week.

Eskom burnt 125.3 million tons of coal in the financial year to last March.

Scary,

Keep it Green

Greencon.