JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa will face a power supply crunch between 2011-13 and 2018-24 unless more power plants than are planned are built, state-owned power utility Eskom said on Monday.

Eskom has launched an extensive power generation expansion programme, but Head of Generation Brian Dames said that much more needed to be done to meet fast rising demand in Africa's biggest economy.

"We are confident for the World Cup and we must say that since 2008 we've had no interruptions," Dames told a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) conference.

"But the period between 2011 and 2013 when there is no major additional capacity coming online and again in 2018 after we've had Kusile (plant) commissioned, then again we will have quite a capacity crunch in the country."

The power utility is under pressure to build new power plants after the national grid nearly collapsed in early 2008, forcing mines and smelters to shut for days and costing the country billions of dollars.

Dames said some 50 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity needed to be built by 2028 to meet demand. Eskom's own expansion programme for now plans for 18,000 MW of new capacity, out of which nearly 5,000 MW has been built since 2005.

He said Eskom was committed to completing the Medupi and Kusile power stations, each expected to supply 4,800 of MW, with Medupi's first unit due in 2012 and that for Kusile in 2013.

The new power needs to partially compensate for ageing power plants which must be decommissioned, Damas said, adding some plants, with a total capacity of 10 GW, are nearing the end of their life. Continued...
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