South Africa's Eskom to spend $23.5 billion on new plants

By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South African power utility Eskom is not under pressure to tap international markets to help fund its 340 billion rand ($23.5 billion) five-year expansion plan, its chief executive said on Tuesday. State-owned Eskom is building new plants and transmission lines to augment a power grid that nearly collapsed in 2008 and was forced to implement controlled blackouts, or load shedding, early last year that dented economic growth. "Our funding for last year is co