‘System is healthy’ – Ramokgopa says SA not experiencing load shedding due to ‘aggressive’ maintenance

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says South Africa has not had load shedding due to the maintenance on Eskom’s generating units.

Additionally, the country’s electricity grid is 3000 megawatts (MW) stronger than it was in winter.

Planned maintenance

Briefing the media on the progress of the energy action plan on Thursday, Ramokgopa indicated that Eskom was taking advantage of the festive season to do “aggressive maintenance” due to less demand of electricity from businesses over the holidays.

“It is important that during this period of low demand, we are able to take this opportunity to ensure we accelerate maintenance. What has been our experience is that when the units have gone out on planned maintenance [and] when they return on average, they continue to perform and remain on load,” he said.

The minister said the country was “beginning to yield fruit” as a result of planned maintenance.

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

“We are going to benefit exceptionally well as a country for us to continue on this path of planned maintenance.”

Ramokgopa, however, warned that planned maintenance had its downside because units were being taken offline from the grid.

“That’s why we have used a combination of what has been low demand and a healthy performance during this period to do not only planned maintenance, but opportunity maintenance.”

The minister pointed out that during opportunity maintenance, Eskom was not burning diesel.

“We are not sitting under the cover of diesel, but it is these machines that are performing so the issue is about their sustenance.”

Watch the briefing below:

Short-term outlook

Ramokgopa also said electricity demand was averaging 24 695 MW compared to the 27 700 MW generation capacity.

“That’s why you are not seeing load shedding. We are working behind the scenes, we are aggressive on the maintenance and the system is performing, but the point I want to make is the consistency because time and time again, I come to the nation and said there is a cluster of units that have failed.

“That is what we are trying to avert and of course I can’t guarantee that won’t happen.

“I think it’s important I make that statement, but the outlook really in the short term, between now and the two weeks, looks upbeat. We really want to ensure that the lights remain on.”

‘System is healthy’

Furthermore, Ramokgopa said that since Eskom ramped up maintenance during the December period, the power grid was healthier.

However, the goal was to ensure that this was consistent.

“The system is healthy in periods so what we want to achieve is to ensure that we maintain that consistency that the system remains healthy,” he said.

The minister highlighted that the intention was to also keep unplanned capacity loss factor and partial load losses down to bolster the performance of Eskom’s generating units at its power stations.

READ MORE: Is Eskom close to meltdown? Experts paint grim picture

“Therefore, you are able to get more megawatts on the grid to service what is the demand. The higher the number, the greater the crisis that is facing us so it simply means the system is unhealthy.”

Ramokgopa said just over 12 000 MW has been lost from the grid in the past 14 days due to “units that have either failed or they are not giving us the amount of megawatts that we want”.

Despite this, the system is “better off” by 3 000 MW when compared to the winter season.

At least 15 500 MW was being averaged during the cold period.