Cape Town – Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the country has made significant progress in addressing power cuts, although challenges remain.
Ramokgopa said this on Tuesday while delivering a statement on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan (EAP) in the National Assembly.
The EAP was introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July last year to address the intensification of load shedding.
“Generation performance continues to improve from the May 2023 days of 27410MW [generation] to 28 883MW in October month to date. Last week, we saw generation breach the psychological mark of 30 000MW largely buoyed by the return to service of Kusile units 3 and 1 over the past month.
“This improved generation and lower than projected demand has allowed for exceptional increase in planned outage or good maintenance. The increased planned outage means that we are improving the overall performance capacity of the fleet, improving reliability and efficiency and steadily ensuring that we navigate to an equilibrium between demand and supply buffered by healthy reserve margin,” he said.
[ON AIR] Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is updating Parliament on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan. On Monday, he said Eskom is doing everything it can to ensure the reliability of the ageing coal power stations. Watch live on #DStv403 and… pic.twitter.com/UVkncIdoHc
— eNCA (@eNCA) October 24, 2023
He added: “So I really want to conclude by saying that we’ve turned the corner but we’re not necessarily out of the woods and that’s why I’m saying we need to accelerate our efforts working across government,” said Ramokgopa.
The increased generation capacity and lower-than-expected demand have allowed for more planned maintenance outages, he said.
“Last week, we saw generation breach the psychological mark of 30 000 megawatts, largely buoyed by the return to service of Kusile Units 3 and 1 over the past month.”
The Minister acknowledged the significant impact of load shedding on South Africans, but expressed optimism that the effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate load shedding is making substantial progress.
“The national energy crisis continues to be the single biggest existential challenge in post-apartheid South Africa, and we must continue to harness all efforts to arrest further haemorrhaging caused by load shedding to our economy and the degradation of the quality of lives of ordinary South Africans.
“In May 2023, I stood in this august House to deliver an executive statement outlining the transversal interventions we were making to reduce the intensity and frequency of load shedding and to articulate our plans in relation to the winter plan. Working with the dedicated staff at Eskom and industry experts, we have successfully navigated through the winter season and are beginning to turn the tide,” Ramokgopa said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
