Eskom was established in South Africa in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission. In July 2002, it was converted into a public, limited liability company, wholly owned by government.
Eskom is one of the top 20 utilities in the world by generation capacity (net maximum self-generated capacity: 41 194MW). Eskom generates approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa and approximately 45% of the electricity used in Africa. Eskom directly provides electricity to about 45% of all end-users in South Africa. The other 55% is resold by redistributors (including municipalities).
Eskom generates, transmits and distributes electricity to customers in the industrial, mining, commercial, agricultural and residential sectors, and to redistributors. Eskom sells electricity directly to about 3 000 industrial customers, 1 000 mining customers, 49 000 commercial customers, 84 000 agricultural customers and more than four million residential customers (of whom the majority are pre-paid customers). Most of the sales are in South Africa, with other southern African countries accounting for a small percentage.
Eskom’s head office is in Johannesburg and its operations are spread across South Africa. In December 2008, a small office was opened in London, primarily for quality control over the equipment being manufactured in Europe for the capacity expansion programme.
Eskom Enterprises operates primarily in South Africa, but it has two subsidiaries that have an interest in electricity operation and maintenance concessions in Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Uganda.
STRATEGY
Eskom buys and sells electricity in the countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The future involvement in African markets beyond South Africa is currently limited to projects that have a direct impact on ensuring a secure supply of electricity for South Africa itself. However, Eskom is investigating additional opportunities in the Southern African Development Community region.
Much of Eskom’s strategy and many of its future projects are aligned with government’s Integrated Resource Plan 2010, which sets out a long-term electricity plan for South Africa.
COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Eskom has integrated sustainable development issues into decision-making for many years. Given that our sector is long term in nature and that many decisions have implications for decades, it is vital that we take robust and responsible decisions.
Sustainability at Eskom refers to providing affordable energy and related services through the integration and consideration of economic development, environmental quality and social equity into business practices in order to continually improve performance and underpin development. This allows us to take a long-term view and ensure that the scope of our work covers all relevant elements, assesses the practicality of implementation and includes issues such as technology development and deployment, quality, risk, safety and skills development.
