Cape Town – Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the return to service of Kusile’s unit 3 is a significant step in reducing load-shedding in South Africa.
This unit had been out of commission due to a structural issue since last October, contributing to strain on the national grid, particularly during winter.
The minister on Sunday expressed optimism, saying that they are beginning to turn the corner in terms of additional capacity.
“Kusile unit 3, one of the three units, is now producing 550MW and we will continue to ramp it up so that we get to 712MW up to 800MW. Now we are beginning to turn the corner in this instance, we have that additional generating capacity that we are bringing back,” Ramokgopa said.
🎥We are pleased to announce that Kusile Unit 3 is returned to service two months ahead of schedule & will improve the available generation capacity by 800 MW’s once loaded to full capacity. This marks a significant milestone as part of the efforts to the resolve of Loadshedding pic.twitter.com/o3hlTgzcI0
— Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa (@Kgosientsho_R) October 1, 2023
Ramokgopa also said that other units would be returned to service in October or early November, which should further reduce capacity losses.
“Those units are coming back and of course; the three units are going to reduce the unplanned capacity loss factor. The rate at which the units are failing, the units that are offline we are going to reduce that by a maximum just on these three units — a maximum of 2,400MW going into the immediate future.
“The rate at which they were able to return this unit ahead of time is something that is impressive. The team of men and women at Kusile had sleepless nights, making sure that we are able to return these units safely, they are able to perform ahead of time,” he said.
The efforts to restore these units ahead of schedule have been impressive, with the goal of improving the power supply situation in the country. Eskom announced the suspension of load-shedding until the following day.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
