‘It’s going to be an exceptionally difficult winter’ – Ramokgopa

Electricity

Cape Town – Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has reportedly warned of a dark and cold winter if Eskom’s grid remains constrained.

He said that South Africans must brace themselves for a difficult winter plagued by higher stages of load shedding.

According to EWN, the minister said that Eskom needed at least 66 000 megawatts to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

“I’ll be brutally honest. It’s going to be an exceptionally difficult winter. We know that in summer conditions, the deficit is 6 000 megawatts. When we go into winter, the peak can go up to 37 000 megawatts. But at the current rate of trips and failures, it’s going to be an exceptionally difficult winter,” the report quoted Ramokgopa as saying as he spoke in the east of Pretoria at the site of the collapsed electricity pylons.

He, however, said that efforts were being made to avoid a “worst-case scenario” by ensuring that the power outages did not surpass stage 6.

“We are doing everything possible that we don’t go beyond stage six. If there’s any changes to that, we will communicate it,” he said.

According to Times Live, Ramokgopa said there were three ways to address the situation, the first being Eskom ramping up its generation capacity.

“The second option is to bring down demand. The third option, our preferred option, is that you do both. You ramp up generation and reduce demand, but as you reduce demand, you don’t undermine the ability of households to meet their daily needs and you don’t undermine the ability of commerce and business to operate and meet the commercial demands.”

Last month, Ramokgopa assured South Africans that they won’t experience power cuts higher than Stage 6.

Ramokgopa’s remarks came as the country feared that higher stages will be implemented during winter.

“I want to give South Africans the assurance that… I don’t foresee us moving to higher, higher stages of load shedding… The highest we’ve gone to is Stage 6… I foresee a position where we are in a position not to go to higher than Stage 6,” he said while speaking to eNCA on Friday just after he wrapped up his oversight visits to all of Eskom’s fourteen power stations across the country.

“I want to give the South African public the assurance that like I said before I don’t foresee us moving to higher, higher stages of load shedding,” he said at the time.

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Compiled by Betha Madhomu

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