Cape Town — South Africans have been treated to more than two months of uninterrupted power, but with elections now firmly in the past, many are fearing that the dreaded loadshedding will return once again.
Despite fears that the lack of loadshedding was just down to electioneering, energy experts have eased South Africans fears about loadshedding would now return as there has been a marked improvement in the energy availability factor (EAF) and a reduction of breakdowns, Minister of Electricity Kgotsientsho Ramokgopa, said.
Craig Morkel, chairperson of the Gas Economy Leadership Team at SA Oil and Gas Alliance (Saoga) revealed that the EAF has improved from 52% in May 2023 to 65% in May 2024, IOL reported.
“The assertion by Eskom and the Ministry of Electricity that load shedding is unlikely to return after the election, bar any extraordinary event, is plausible as it is supported by various analyses of the 2023 and 2024 year-to-date data.” he said.
Ruse Moleshe, managing director of RUBK, an energy and infrastructure consulting and advisory company, said Eskom had enough capacity and load shedding would not return in the immediate future .
“Load shedding depends on supply versus demand. At the moment Eskom has enough supply to match the demand. Obviously we can’t give a 100% guarantee that load shedding won’t return as there could be a major breakdown, but the forecast we have does bode well.: Moleshe said.
Loadshedding remains suspended after 65 days of suspension due to sustained generation performance pic.twitter.com/0bSoG5BTDi
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) May 31, 2024
According to The Citizen, certain polling stations were also affected by power cuts, but energy experts Chris Yellend, said power cuts are a common occurrence due to problems on the distribution networks.
“These can take place randomly at any time and it’s not under Eskom’s control directly – it can also happen on municipal networks,” he said.
Yellend said there was a big difference between loadshedding and power cuts and said a power cut is completely out of the hands of the ministry and the IEC.
Eskom’s spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said that winter will bring about an increase in loadshedding and that loadshedding is still about three years away.
“The minister of electricity has said once winter takes full effect, the chances of load shedding will increase dramatically. It is not correct to assume that load shedding is finished. “It will take us three years to create a base load using coal-fired power stations to close the gap. We are not there yet.” he said.
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Picture: X/@Eskom_SA
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
