Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. has warned that the rejection of its application for higher air pollution limits by South Africa’s environment department could see it close more than a third of its power generation capacity.
The state-owned utility that supplies almost all of the country’s electricity said the refusal to allow it to delay complying with new emission limits at a number of its plants would mean that it will need to spend more than 300 billion rand ($19 billion) to meet the requirements. The company, which has 400 billion rand of debt, will appeal to the environment, public enterprises and energy departments, over the decision.
