Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that resolving load shedding won’t happen overnight, asserting, however, that both Eskom and the government are making noteworthy advancements in targeted areas to diminish and ultimately eliminate the issue.
Ramaphosa said this while addressing the nation through his weekly newsletter on Monday.
“Today, we are releasing a detailed report outlining the work done to improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations, accelerate the building of new generation capacity and drive regulatory reforms to transform the electricity sector.
“The winter months will soon be coming to an end. Although load shedding has continued, as was anticipated, we have managed to avert a worst case scenario by stabilising the performance of Eskom’s power stations and reducing demand,” Ramaphosa said.
He said that Eskom’s power stations are showing improvement, with reduced unplanned losses and increased maintenance efforts.
“Eskom’s generation fleet continues to show sustained improvement. Unplanned losses have been reduced to less than 16 000MW in in the last two months, down from more than 18 000MW previously. Planned maintenance has been reduced during the winter period, with Eskom having undertaken significant maintenance in the months preceding winter.
“Looking ahead, damaged units at the Kusile and Medupi power stations are being returned to service on an expedited basis. In combination, these units represent more than 3 000MW of capacity.
A year has passed since we launched the Energy Action Plan to resolve the loadshedding crisis, and we are now able to report significant progress in several areas. https://t.co/F4Ld369NGu pic.twitter.com/b2HJjq0rGG
— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 31, 2023
“The Eskom debt relief package announced by the Minister of Finance will enable necessary investment in maintenance and expansion of the transmission network,” he said.
The president also discussed the Energy Action Plan, which he announced last year with an aim to address load shedding and achieve energy security for the country.
He said that said since then, fervent work has been done “to add as much power as possible” to the vulnerable power grid.
“Eskom has unlocked close to 400 MW from companies with extra available capacity, and a further 600 MW is currently in the contracting process. We have sourced an additional 400MW from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique.
“We are fast-tracking the procurement of new generation capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage. Later this year, the first three projects from the emergency power programme are expected to connect to the grid. Also later this year, around 2 300MW from the most recent bid windows of the renewable energy independent power producer programme should be in construction,” he said.
Ramaphosa pointed out that regulatory changes have encouraged private investment in electricity generation, resulting in a pipeline of over 10 000MW of new capacity set to connect to the grid later in the year.
He also mentioned the positive impact of home and rooftop solar uptake, as more municipalities allow customers to feed excess electricity into the grid.
Although load shedding remains a challenge, Ramaphosa expressed optimism about the progress being made and urged everyone to contribute to building an energy-secure future for South Africa.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
