By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has denied that the grid was about to collapse and cause a total blackout.
Ramokgopa said there were reserved margins that are meant to protect the grid and these would not be used at any time.
Eskom is currently implementing stage 6 load shedding until further notice.
With winter on the way, there are fears the colder weather could push the national grid over the edge.
He said the system was designed in such a way that there were safeguards in place.
Answering questions in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday, Ramokgopa said the grid was protected.
“There is what you call a ‘Reserve margin’. It is 2 200 megawatts that are kept at every given time by the system operator in Gauteng. We are highly unlikely to have a grid collapse – a blackout, because of that 2 200 reserve margin.
“That person will never take any instruction from the Minister of Electricity or a national DPE [Public Enterprises].
He or she will never take an instruction even from the president of this country because the interest is to protect the grid.”
Ramokgopa also said that Cabinet was considering the proposal to do away with the fuel levy on diesel to help struggling businesses and health facilities.
He said that telecommunications and cell phone companies were spending up to R5 billion a year on diesel to keep data centres and cell phone towers functioning.
He said that Cabinet would look at the proposal to look into taxes linked to diesel.
“We have met with all the major farmers, we have met with the health providers in the country, the private health providers and of course we are computing the ones in the state and see what the dispensation that can be created so that we get to address the situation. The taxes in the fuel, I want to repeat, are meant for you and I when we use the road. There’s a cost to using the road.”
Ramokgopa said that saving the economy was their “principal preoccupation” as he tries to end the energy crisis.
Meanwhile state-owned insurer the SA Special Risk Insurance Association (Sasria) has joined private insurers in preparing for a potential total collapse of the national electricity grid by informing its clients that should it occur, policyholders cannot claim for damages.
In the event of a grid collapse, which could trigger civil unrest similar to that experienced in July 2021, Sasria has informed its clients that the “reinsurance market has been urging [it] to eliminate [its] coverage for claims stemming from electricity grid failure as a result of the unprecedented levels of load-shedding”.