Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. Picture: GCIS
Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said load shedding is an “unwelcome occurrence” that has severely impacted South Africans lives.
Ramokgopa was briefing the media on the Energy Action Plan (EAP) on a cold Sunday morning.
On Sunday Eskom urged all South Africans to reduce their electricity demand due to the current cold weather
“This will continue to alleviate pressure on the system and avoid higher stages of load shedding,” it said.
Ramokgopa said there have been some improvements in generation capacity to mitigate load shedding.
“As we said before, load shedding is an unwelcome occurrence, but the more we are able to illustrate that there’s gradual improvements in terms of the number of hours that your lights are on and off and we use this to measure the stages of load shedding.
“So, that’s why we try to ensure that by all means we don’t go beyond stage 4, and again we are looking forward to the subsequent weeks that we should be able to take it down,” Ramokgopa said.
ALSO READ: Eskom eases load shedding for weekend, here’s your schedule
The minister also warned of higher electricity demand during the coming cold front.
“There’s a cold front, especially in the Gauteng area, I did say before that it accounts for a significant amount, about 25% of the load. It is something that is worrying and you are expecting that the demand is going to surge.
“If the improvements in relation to available capacity does not match the increases on the demand side, then the only corrective measure that we have is what we call load shedding. I am hopeful that we should be in a position to address that situation,” Ramokgopa said.
The minister also said the deliberate power cuts are a “short term and long-term pain.”
“It’s a short term and a long-term pain. Of course, all us are suffering as a result of load shedding. But when we get to a situation when we say we are out of load shedding, it’s important that we are able to give you the assurance that we are confident about these units being resilient, being able to carry us in the future.”
Ramokgopa also said progress has been made on interventions following a fire that broke out at Grootvlei Power Station unit 2
The fire broke out at Grootvlei earlier this month due to a leak in the fuel oil supply or return pipeline.
Grootvlei is one of Eskom’s oldest power stations and has only three commissioned units.
Before the fire, unit 2 was the only one of the three in operation. It had a capacity of 190MW but was operating below this.
Ramokgopa said Eskom is confident that Grootvlei’s unit 2 will return to service by the end of next week.
“I am also happy to report that we didn’t experience any injuries or fatalities and that is on the account of the excellent team at Grootvlei,” Ramakgopa said.
Ramokgopa said the month of Junes was Eskom’s best performing month with significant reversals of power outages.
ALSO READ: Cape provinces and Gauteng warned to brace for strong cold fronts
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