By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom says that it will be escalating load shedding on Tuesday following the breakdown of units at its power stations.
Eskom said that it has experienced breakdowns of a unit each at Arnot, Majuba and Medupi power stations, leading to additional strain on the national grid.
Instead of moving to stage 3 on Tuesday, as previously communicated, load shedding will be at stage 4 during the day. The schedule will then continue as previously announced, moving to stage 5 in the evening.
Eskom said it intends to return to the previously announced schedule of stage 3 during the day and stage 5 in the evenings until further notice.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has meanwhile disputed claims that load shedding will be a thing of the past by the end of 2023.
Ramokgopa made the remarks during a site inspection at Kusile Power Station in Mpumalanga on Monday.
“Yes I am on record saying that it doesn’t look like we can end load shedding by the end of the year and I provided the reasons. So three units (at Kusile) that will come on will give us 2400MW and unit five that will be fully on stream in April 2024, it’s about 3200 MW”.
Four units are currently offline at the second-biggest power station in the country.
Units one, two, three and five are all expected to come back online between November and December 2023.
Each unit is expected to provide the grid with 800MW.
Unit five, which has been damaged by a fire in the gas air heater is expected to be fully commercialised by April 2024.
Eskom project manager at Kusile Power Station Zandile Mthimunye says the project at Kusile will cost the taxpayer a whopping R250 million.
She says the price could still increase.
“The type of cost we have is a cost-plus contract. We have currently committed R250 million, it is a work in progress.”
Meanwhile Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya says an imminent government gazette will outline the powers of Ramokgopa.
Magwenya was responding to questions during a media briefing on Monday.
“The President has not failed to allocate powers to the Minister of Electricity. In fact, that issue has been resolved. The proclamation has been signed and you will have the details of that proclamation once it’s been gazetted,” Magwenya said.
He explained that the process to allocate official powers to the Minister was undertaken carefully.
“Yes, it has taken time, as it should because of the necessary consultations that had to be held to ensure that, in resolving the electricity crisis, we do so in a manner that is harmonious with respect to the workings of government. We take into consideration that that portfolio is a transitional sort of portfolio; it’s not a permanent portfolio.
“Therefore, whatever power that you allocated to it, you will not do so at the risk of causing short term or long term instability in government,” he said.