In his energy action plan briefing at the GCIS offices on Sunday, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said strengthening the grid would take more time and resources than Eskom can afford.
Ramokgopa said: “The Eskom balance sheet is not in the position to finance the kind of expansion that is required in both the scale and the speed at which we need to respond to the needs. The Eskom balance sheet will not be enough to support that and of course, we need to think creatively around how is it that we will be doing to address that.”
However, Ramokgopa has assured that the government is focused on addressing Eskom’s financial crisis.
The minister expressed some concerns over the Koeberg power station which currently has a unit that has been out for far longer than what was anticipated.
Despite some improvement since May this year, Ramokgopa said demand has increased significantly during the cold winter months.
“And of course, on the human side, the expectation has always been that when you enter the latter part of June and into July, we're going to see the demand that is spiking. And of course, that is our own projections, you can see that the demand in July has been greater than any other period during this winter,” said Ramokgopa.
Gauteng has the highest demand for electricity. According to the minister, weather conditions also play a role.
To fix this, Eskom is said to be working closely with the Gauteng provincial government and municipalities to coordinate and orchestrate interventions.
“Gauteng accounts on average about 25% of the load. So, the interventions that are made in Gauteng do matter,” said Ramokgopa.
Another area of focus highlighted by the minister is the tripping of units and teams are working around the clock to prevent this from occurring.
Ramokgopa said: “I did make the point that when the unit trips, it means that they are out there not providing us megawatts, which intensifies load shedding.”
Ramokgopa added: “The levels of load shedding are not going down to where we want it to be. Even with this elevated the peak demand in my view when I was sharing with the team is that we should not be in way upwards of Stage 3 but it’s something that requires our collective attention. I do promise that we're going to address this with the urgency that the state is required.”
Eskom has implemented Stage 4 load shedding from 2pm on Sunday until 5am on Monday, thereafter Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 5am until 4pm on Monday.
Stage 4 loadshedding will once again be implemented at 4pm on Monday until 5am on Tuesday, followed by stage 2 and 4 until further notice.
IOL