SA should brace for higher stages of load shedding going into 2024

South Africans should once again brace themselves for higher stages of load shedding going into 2024 following growing concern that unit 1 at Koeberg nuclear power station in Cape Town will not be returned to service by mid-September, as previously communicated by Eskom.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa yesterday said if the unit – which is currently on a maintenance outage for a steam generator replacement – could mean both generating units would be out of service at the same time.

Detailed report

“I’ve asked for a more detailed report [on Koeberg] and the more we get an indication of what the issues are, the more we are getting very, very, very worried,” he said.

This means an additional 920MW of much-needed generation capacity.

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“Once we have an overlap of unit 1 not coming on stream and unit 2 having to be taken off [for maintenance] the net picture is that we would have lost 920MW from where we are now.”

He said: “That is a huge dent on our generating capacity. That is something we want to avert at all cost.”

Ramokgopa said while they could not visit Koeberg last week to get an update on progress made, “we will do [thevisit] this week. It is something that requires urgency”.

He added: “We rode out the most difficult period and at this point we really don’t anticipate going to higher stages of load shedding. We think we have got this under control.

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“I can never speak in absolute terms but this is just to indicate the extent to which we don’t think we will go to higher stages of load shedding.”

Crime at Eskom

Meanwhile, despite criticism from experts about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to deploy the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to safeguard Eskom power plants last year, Ramokgopa said there was progress regarding security issues related to the implementation of the energy action plan.

He noted that at least 66 suspects had been arrested for various crimes at Eskom since 1 April, while more than 500 criminal cases at Eskom were investigated through the help of the SANDF.

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“Over the period between April 2022 to date, there are 2 147 Eskom cases that have been reported to the police,” he said.

“About 1 586 of these are under investigation and 126 arrests have been made; so you can see it’s gradual, yet meaningful progress.

“In an attempt to fix the electricity issue, we are also focusing on fixing the underlying issues – fraud, corruption and security at Eskom.”