Cape Town — Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has expressed optimism about ending load shedding, saying that it will be resolved by getting units back online and not through divine intervention.
Ramokgopa is continuing his visits to all of Eskom’s power stations which began last week. The visits are aimed at engaging management, workers, and unions.
Ramokgopa understands the effects that load shedding has on the country’s economy, Africa News reported.
“Unserviced electricity in this country is costing the South African economy 500 billion rands per annum. We also know from stats SA that the GDP contraction as a result of load shedding is about 2.1 percentage points. We got statistics just the other day that the South African economy has contracted bt 1.3% on the back of load shedding,” he was quoted as saying during his visit at the Lethabo Power Station in the Free State.
“Loadshedding will not be ended through an act of God. So Easter is coming, and irrespective of the amount of prayer that we put it won’t resolve load shedding. Loadshedding will be resolved by getting the units back online. Loadshedding will be resolved by ensuring that we are able to improve the operational efficiency of these units,” he added.
#Loadshedding | Government is implementing the necessary steps to stabilize the electrical grid. pic.twitter.com/ClZxzMNMUT
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) March 27, 2023
The minister will continue to visit more power stations, including Grootvlei Power Station on Tuesday, Hendrina and Arnot Power Stations on Thursday, Matla and Komati Power Stations on Friday and the Majuba Power Station on Saturday.
Speaking during a visit to Koeberg Nuclear Power Station recently, Ramokgopa said the coal-powered fire stations need to increase their performance during the winter season due to expected delays in Koeberg’s 920MW Unit One returning to service.
“Those underperforming power stations in Mpumalanga, Tutuka Power Station in particular, have to make significant improvements. We know that at Kusile [Power Station] we can’t make an improvement anytime earlier than in November of this year.
“So it means that the other [power stations] must meet the demands disproportionately because in winter, we know the demand is going to rise exponentially. We had hoped that Koeberg will be within the timeframe…so we are likely to miss the target of 23 July to get the additional 920MW. To put it into context, that’s one stage of load shedding so that was going to help us to bring it down.
“So we need to put greater emphasis on those 13 [coal fired] power stations to improve their energy availability factor [EAF],” he said.
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Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
