Good tidings as minister promises lights will stay on for Xmas

If there’s no significant increase for demand in electricity in the next coming week, South Africans should be in for a bright-lit Christmas and New Year as experts advise to keep fingers crossed.

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa yesterday declared a festive season with the lights on.

Last year, load shedding was suspended over Christmas, but Eskom went back on its promise to keep the lights on on New Year’s Eve.

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

Briefing the media on the Energy Action Plan in Pretoria, the minister could not confirm how long this would last, and said: “The lights will remain on, going into the near future.

“The trend line is positive. What we will celebrate is if we can sustain it.”

Eskom suspended the rolling power cuts last week Thursday, which is expected to remain in place until further notice.

Ramokgopa said the suspension of load shedding was as a result of reduced demand which was now averaging at just more than 24 000 megawatts (MW), while the country has about 27 700MW available.

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

“The demand is averaging about 24 695MW and that’s why you’re not seeing load shedding. We’re working behind the scenes,” he said.

“We are aggressive on the maintenance, the system is perGood tidings as minister promises lights will stay on for Xmas forming, but the point I want to make is consistency… because time and time again I come before the nation, and I say there’s been a cluster of units that have failed.

“That’s something that we want to avert, and I can’t guarantee that won’t happen. I think it’s important that I make that statement.”

With load shedding paused until 2024, independent energy expert Lungile Mashele said this festive season was looking rather promising and SA should be spared from load shedding.

Mashele echoed the minister’s sentiments and said the Christmas weekend should remain load shedding free, “provided there’s no significant increase in demand, adverse weather or a loss of units”.

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

“This has been the most difficult year for load shedding – in frequency and intensity. This year was worse than the 15 previous years cumulatively,” she said.

“This load shedding was a result of poor plant performance, increased industrial demand leading up to the winter season, a lack of quality maintenance, the loss of three units at Kusile and the delay in returning to service unit 1 at Koeberg.”

“Given that the last two issues have been rectified, I do not anticipate that level or intensity of load shedding again. “But yes, we will still experience load shedding in 2024,” Mashele said.

Energy analyst Linda Alexandre said if the minister was not confident, then South Africans should definitely keep their fingers crossed.

Ramokgopa said while he can’t guarantee the uninterrupted exceptional performance of the generating units, the outlook for the next two weeks was promising.

ALSO READ: Government seeking ‘legal interpretation’ of load shedding court order – Ramokgopa

“I can’t guarantee that that won’t happen. It’s important that I say that, but the outlook in the short term – and by short-term I mean between now and the next two weeks or so – looks upbeat.”

The minister also said the country could not keep burning diesel to keep the lights on while government worked on a sustainable solution to the energy crisis.

However, Eskom had managed to keep the lights on due to low demands as economic activity slows over the festive period. The utility’s head of generation Bheki Nxumalo said the grid was looking healthier this December, compared to last year.

“Last year this time around we were hovering around stages 5 and 6, so inherently the diesel [usage] will be higher,” he said.

“The minister has indicated that if you look at the past week, more so during peak hours and in the evening, we haven’t burned any diesel at all. So, this year is quite less than what we were in December.

“Our job is not to start load shedding but to continuously address the unreliability of the system and then load shedding will be introduced due to shortage on the part of the system operator,” Nxumalo said.