The image above isn’t some random collection of rocks lying outside a construction site somewhere.

Instead, it’s what was delivered to, and bought by, Eskom.

We know that we’re really in the dwang when the outdated coal plants reach the end of their lifespans (that’s not far away), and we’ve also seen evidence of the extremely substandard coal being delivered to many of South Africa’s power stations.

After the first pictures were widely circulated, MyBroadband received further images from around the country, although it’s a problem that’s been ongoing for a while now.

Energy expert Chris Yelland told Daily Maverick that the issue around coal quality has been ongoing for years and that coal quality is not consistent across the country.

“Some suppliers deliver coal which has foreign matter like stones, sand, and metal. This, of course, will have an impact on the mechanisms of a generation unit in the long term.”

He explained that poor quality coal, for example, produces more ash after the coal is burned. Most power generation units in South Africa have not been designed to handle this additional ash.

The pressing question here is figuring out what measures are in place to ensure that the mines tasked with providing coal maintain a certain standard.

Sadly, the answer points to a mess:

One of the main problems is that pre-certification of coal is done at the coal mines, after which there is an understanding that coal of this quality will be delivered to power stations.

This, however, does not always happen.

Many coal providers take a chance to deliver poor-quality coal or even sand and rocks to power stations, hoping to get away with it.

The power stations with good quality controls will send the coal back with a stern warning to the coal provider.

At other stations without proper quality controls, the poor-quality coal and even rocks may make it to the mills and burners.

When they do, the damage to these stations can be enormous, but there is seldom any action taken against the mines who provide the substandard coal.

Zero repercussion, zero improvement.

Worse still, mines that actually produce high-quality coal can flog it overseas for a higher price, so many make use of the global market.

Here are a few of the images that MyBroadband received, showing ‘coal’ delivered to Hendrina, Matla, and other Eskom power stations:

I’m interested to see what energy expert Ted Blom is going to say about these latest images.

Looks like this year’s naughty children might be getting a lump of rock in their stockings.

[source:mybroadband]