By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has provided an update on grid performance and progress in stabilising the power supply.
The Minister was speaking during a media briefing to update the nation on the state of the electricity grid.
“We are in a good space. We are moving in the right direction. We made the promise that we are going to address this situation and we made the promise that we are confident of our technical ability to resolve what many thought was an intractable challenge.
“We are within that touching distance,” Ramokgopa said.
The Minister said Eskom does not “expect any major surprises in relation to the performance of the grid” for the remainder of the winter and the subsequent transition to the warmer months.
“Of course, this is a dynamic system. These are rotating units and there could be challenges. However, the grid is designed in such a manner where we can call upon the peaking plants to help us to sustain the performance of the grid without relying on load shedding.
“[The peaking plants] are a card we have when are in major challenges… to keep the lights on,” he said.
Between April and August 8, power stations have been operating with an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) that has reached 60.14%.
“This is major progress that we are making, if you look at where the performance was. If we go back to 2023 when we initiated this intervention, it was substantially lower… we are coming from a low of about 49%.
“The past 14 days or so… the EAF is continuing to give us spectacular results. At some point, we even breached the 70% mark in relation to performance of the EAF. The average month to date… we are sitting at 65.38%.
Ramokgopa also confirmed that he has asked the Eskom board not to proceed with its legal case against the regulator’s decision to license five additional electricity traders in 2024.
Eskom argues that the five licences unlawfully infringe on its existing licence and areas of supply and could lead to a ‘cherry-picking’ of profitable customers by traders.
Ramokgopa issued a statement on August 8 urging Eskom to withdraw its case and in the briefing reiterated that stance.
He said that, while it was only natural to have friction as the market shifted from a monopolistic structure to one that included multiple participants, he was not in favour of Eskom resorting to the courts to resolve what was a technically complex matter.
He highlighted that Nersa had initiated a process to finalise the rules, and the timeline had been reduced from an initial 12 months to three months in an effort to bring certainty as a matter of priority.
“It’s in that context that I told Eskom that it’s not advisable that they go to the courts,” he said, indicating that he had conveyed the message directly to Eskom chairperson Dr Mteto Nyati in a recent meeting.
He described the court process as a “particularly unhelpful approach” that would “muddy the waters” and indicated that he had urged Eskom to, instead, contribute to the rules-setting process, so that the way was again cleared for Nersa to issue trading licences.
“Everyone wants a rules-based approach,” he said, indicating that he was optimistic that all market participants would be able to tolerate a three-month process.
As Eskom’s shareholder, Ramokgopa denied that Eskom was opposed to the reforms and also insisted that government had no intention of reversing course.
“The reform agenda is irreversible,” the Minister stressed.
He added that changes were being pursued primarily to remove the prevailing risk to stable and affordable electricity supply by having responsibility for that supply concentrated in a single entity.