Cape Town – South Africa’s electricity system is showing improvement, according to Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
He said that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, with capacity losses decreasing from 14,100MW to 12,700MW.
“We have really turned the corner and I’m not suggesting that we have ended load shedding. I’m simply saying that we can see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel and this is not an oncoming train but it’s a system whose health continues to improve and improve at levels that even exceeded our projections and expectations.
[WATCH] Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on #loadshedding: “We can say there is light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not an oncoming train.”#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/kVyknTt6L8
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) January 23, 2024
“With the average unplanned capacity loss factor [generating unit breakdowns], we were sitting at about 14 100MW and then it went to 13 000MW in the past week but what is important is that it’s only on the 16th of January where were above 15 000MW…now today, we are at 12 700MW. That shows an area… that the team has invested in and we are beginning to see those returns,” Ramokgopa said on Tuesday while briefing the media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan.
The minister revealed that over the last two weeks, the available capacity has consistently surpassed the peak demand.
Nevertheless, load shedding persists due to specific reasons. One of these reasons is that a minimum of 3,000MW of available capacity is derived from open cycle gas turbines operating on diesel.
“…We have [now]reduced our consumption of diesel… so essentially it’s the true health of the system.
“The second reason is that…planned maintenance still is significantly high. We are hitting about 8 000 to 9 000MW of planned maintenance.
The Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa briefs the media on the implementation of the #EnergyActionPlan at the Union Buildings, Pretoria. pic.twitter.com/PDcD8A7MIe
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) January 23, 2024
“Even with that scale of planned maintenance, we still have a situation where we are able to keep load shedding at the levels of the worst, Stage 3 [or] oscillating between no load shedding to Stage 3,” he said.
He said that the focus is on addressing partial load losses of 6,700MW.
“The area that is receiving attention is the partial load losses of 6 700MW. It is our collective view…that we can do much better here. Of course some of it is a function of us exceeding our licence parameters, those are areas that require attention.
“So… the net message that I am conveying is that the system continues to improve. It has exceeded our expectation if the unit measure of the expectation is the unplanned capacity loss factor of 14 500MW…we are way below that by about 1 000MW, despite the fact that planned maintenance is sitting at 8 337MW,” he said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
