Creecy panel to consider Eskom's appeal against orders that may cut 16 GW of power

Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s environment minister, said she will appoint a panel to adjudicate appeals made by state power utility Eskom against orders aimed at curbing air pollution that the utility said could lead to the closure of 16 000 MW of power generation capacity.

The panel will consist of six experts, the minister’s department said in a statement, without giving detail on when their assessment will be completed.

In December, when the orders were made public, Eskom said it would need to spend R300 billion to comply and couldn’t afford it. The company has a R416-billion debt burden.

Eskom, which mainly generates power from coal, is South Africa’s biggest polluter and accounts for about 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions in a nation that’s the world’s 13th-biggest source of climate-warming gases.