IT Giant Oracle Cuts Services To Eskom
IT Giant Oracle Cuts Services To Eskom. Software giant Oracle has pulled off IT support for South Africa’s power utility Eskom. Eskom spokesperson on Friday told News24 that “there hasn’t been any positive development between the parties.”
Two weeks ago, Eskom lost a court battle to stop Oracle from withdrawing its crucial services over a dispute relating to billions of rands owed by the power utility. Eskom failed to convince the Johannesburg High Court to stop Oracle from withdrawing its crucial services. Oracle provides an online vending system that records 77 million transactions of electricity a month. The embattled power utility also uses Oracle’s products and services for load monitoring of electricity generation by power stations.
Eskom’s chief adviser: strategic IT alliance, Tshifhiwa Ratshimbilani, argued in court papers seen by the Sunday World that cutting the IT support would have catastrophic consequences for Eskom and countless members of the public and business. “It would thus have a crippling effect on the economy, which is already under strain due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.” The State power utility has been in a disagreement with Oracle, which initially claimed Eskom underpaid it by about R7.3-billion, before reducing the amount to R380-million.
Eskom is a South African electricity public utility, established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) by the South African Government and people of the Republic of South Africa in terms of the Electricity Act (1922). South Africa became a Republic in the 1960s. Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the largest producer of electricity in Africa, and was among the top utilities in the world in terms of generation capacity and sales, but has since slipped in both categories.
It is the largest of South Africa’s state owned enterprises. Eskom operates a number of notable power stations, including Matimba Power Station and Medupi Power Station in Lephalale, Kusile Power Station in Witbank, Kendal Power Station, and Koeberg nuclear power station in the Western Cape Province, the only nuclear power plant in Africa.
