Eskom’s chief operations officer, Jan Oberholzer, on Wednesday told reporters in South Africa that the power utility is presently exporting power to Zimbabwe and has entered recently entered into an agreement with ZESCO to export power to Zambia as well.
Oberholzer further revealed that Eskom’s agreements with ZESA and ZESCO are non-firm arrangements, which means that power is exported only if it is available. He said;
We have contracts that we have signed, with Zesa of Zimbabwe and Zesco of Zambia. We do export specifically to Zimbabwe at this point in time. I do not know if we have started with Zesco.
If Eskom needs the power, we do not export the power. The contracts have been signed as non-firm.
The Eskom CEO was responding to a question about the conditions under which the power utility exports power to neighbouring states.
ZESA, or the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, and ZESCO are state power utilities in Zimbabwe and Zambia, respectively.
