Cape Town – Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has expressed confidence in drastically reducing load-shedding in the country by December.
Ramokgopa said several interventions, such as importing power from Mozambique and expediting the procurement of emergency power, which he believes will contribute to the reduction in load-shedding stages, were in place to solve the crisis.
“Once we get to do all of this intervention, [including] importing from Mozambique as an example [and] accelerating the procurement of emergency power, I’ll be able to aggregate what are those megawatts that are possible.
“And on the basis of those megawatts, I’ll be able to say: ‘this is the time that we are confident we would be able to have ended load-shedding’,” Ramokgopa said during an interview with eNCA.
He said that an additional 6 000MW of power will be procured by the end of the year, with 4 000MW expected to be added to the grid by December 24.
Ramokgopa emphasised the need for aggressive action on the demand side and the timely connection of emergency power to the grid.
He expressed optimism that these measures, along with the additional power, will lead to significantly lower levels of load-shedding by the end of the calendar year, the report said.
The minister’s remarks came a few days after the acting Eskom CEO Calib Cassim warned that South Africa may face stage 8 load shedding during the upcoming winter, indicating severe electricity shortages.
Eskom, the country’s power utility, has 3 000 MW less power available this winter compared to the previous year.
If unplanned outages reach 18 000 MW, stage 8 load shedding becomes highly likely, Cassim said.
“If the interventions that we have planned for the winter do not achieve the desired outcomes and your unplanned outages reach levels of 18 000MW, then the likelihood of stage 8 load shedding during peaks is extremely high,” Cassim said.
#Eskom Acting CEO Calib Cassim says the likelihood of #stage8 #loadshedding is very high this winter if the interventions planned for the cold weather season don’t yield the desired outcomes. #Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/Xu9Z544l9b
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) May 18, 2023
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Picture: Twitter/@Kgosientsho
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Compiled by Betha Maadhomu
