Cape Town – The Presidency has reportedly said that it is exhausting all avenues to curb South Africa’s electricity crisis, including opening up the market and securing emergency power by Eskom.
Head of project management in the Presidency, Rudi Dicks elaborated on the plans as he spoke on the electricity crisis during an update on the President’s public programme on Sunday.
He said high up on their priority list was getting more megawatts onto the grid and ensuring they engage key stakeholders in the energy sector in a bid to reduce load shedding, reported IOL.
“It is important to stress the one area, the ability of Operation Vulindlela to open the electricity market space, particularly at the generation level and this was through the schedule 2 amendment, which initially started in 2021 when Minister Gwede Mantashe promulgated that amendment of schedule 2 to raise the cap from 1MW to 100MW.
“That has significantly opened up the private space. There are now potential 104 projects exceeding 9 000MW,” the report quoted Dicks as saying.
Dicks also said the second area was to secure emergency power, adding that Eskom will go to the market in the next few days, the report said.
[WATCH] “We’re not intending to replace or to interfere in the operational or governance and managerial responsibility of Eskom,” said Rudi Dicks, Head of Project Management in the Presidency, on the energy crisis during an update on the President’s public programme. pic.twitter.com/ywRpvhilD4
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) February 12, 2023
He also called on the power utility to increase its budget for diesel substantially, as the power utility geared up for a new financial year at the start of April, reported EWN.
In November, Eskom ran out of funds to buy diesel to avoid severe nationwide power cuts after spending more than 12 billion rand ($690 million) on fuel so far.
Dicks cautioned Eskom against finding itself in the same boat in the upcoming financial year, the reported EWN.
Eskom has over the last few weeks been implementing various stages of load shedding everyday resulting in dire consquences for South African businesses, including funeral parlours that were battling to keep bodies from decomposing.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
