As a youngster growing up in Mamelodi, all Tebogo Lekalakala wanted was to become a vet. But today he is nursing Eskom’s longest continuously running power station back to health.
In his office at Mpumalanga's Hendrina power station, commissioned between 1970 and 1976, Lekalakala said: “I love animals and always wanted to be a veterinary surgeon. To give you an idea of the scale of that love, come to my house and see my five dogs. My eldest daughter and I have volunteered many times at animal shelters. The love for animals is a guiding principle in our lives.”
But at the end of his grade 10 year, Premier Mine in nearby Cullinan took some of Vlakfontein High School's best maths and science pupils for extra classes on Saturdays, and on one of those trips his world changed.
“They took us down into the mine and my mind was blown. Wow. I couldn’t stop talking about the experience. Gone were my dreams of becoming a vet. I wanted to be an engineer,” he said.
“After school, I studied mechanical engineering at Mangosutho Technical University in KwaZulu-Natal.”
In 1994 during his practical year he joined Eskom subsidiary Rotek Industries, which provides construction and maintenance services to the utility. He remained there until 2003.
“That means I come from a very strong maintenance background. My Eskom journey started when I did some work for Rotek at Kendal power station. Siemens was called in to fix a big problem with a unit failing. They called Rotek in and at the time I was the service engineer.
“I ended up bringing that unit back on load 10 days earlier than planned. Shortly after that, I was called into an office and Eskom offered me a job. I joined them as the turbine maintenance manager in 2003.”
He worked his way up the ranks, managing Majoba and Camden power stations.
“When I left Camden we were one of, if not the, best performing stations with an energy availability factor (EAF) of 90%.”
Lekalakala will need to draw on those skills with only one of six units at Hendrina working and a total EAF of 24%, something he hopes will be fixed by the end of the year or early next year at the latest.
Lekalakala believes the loosening of procurement procedures has changed the game at Eskom’s power stations.
“Procurement was a nightmare. We constrained ourselves by putting processes and procedures in place that were sometimes impractical. This made us very inefficient. It was really all about compliance and when you stepped outside these procedures and processes you were noncompliant.”
He said it was not possible to get critical components in time to prevent breakdowns.
“Now no power station manager has an excuse. We have agreements in place with many original-equipment manufacturers so we can do things faster and more reliably. A breakdown that in the recent past put a machine out of service for up to three weeks is now shortened to three days. That makes an incredible difference.”
Hendrina was supposed to be mothballed by 2025 before a decision was made to try to run it until 2030, but it is an uphill battle.
“We have only one unit on load and four others undergoing major refurbishment. Until last week we had two units running but we lost the second one.
“We are pulling out all the stops and working hard. At one stage we had 3,500 employees and contractors on site working on the refurbishments. That shows how serious Eskom is about getting Hendrina back on load,” he said.
“Like a lot of other Eskom stations we were held back by corruption and other issues, but that is not where we are now. The game has changed, and the expectation. We know where we are and what is expected of us. We can take lessons from what we went through but leave the baggage behind.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.