By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan, says that his department is “working around the clock closely with Eskom to ensure that units [that have broken down at coal-fired power stations]” were returned to service.
Eskom has been battling breakdowns and slow returns to service of generation units, which has led to the country being plunged to Stage 6 load shedding.
Eskom shed close to 7 000 MW, associated with Stage 7, from the grid on Monday evening.
The higher the load shedding stage – the more frequently customers will experience power outages.
Eskom has since downgraded load shedding to Stage 5 – which means 5 000 MW will be shed from the grid.
“We are deeply mindful of the strain that this places on households and businesses in the country. We are alive to the fact that load shedding impacts on households [and] businesses, and disrupts the daily lives of South Africans.
“We have mobilised the full resources of our teams, together with Eskom, to address this immediate challenge of load shedding. All efforts are directed towards returning megawatts due to unplanned breakdowns and outages,” Gordhan said.
He explained that the department has met with Eskom to implement immediate solutions to “ensure the current generation fleet provides reliable electricity to the country”.
These efforts include:
- The approval of the emergency procurement of 1 000 MW from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and industrial co-generators, which could bring more capacity onto the grid within two months.
- Eskom has been granted approval to procure an extra 200MW from the Southern African Power Pool.
- Ensuring reliable maintenance of power stations and plants through the recruitment of former experienced employees and energy experts.
- Some 18 energy specialists in power plant operations have been brought in to assist with operations.
- The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy has, through the work of the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM), initiated Bid Windows 5 and 6 to bring more megawatts to the grid.
According to Gordhan, NECOM has already initiated visits to power stations in order to gauge and asses the challenges Eskom is facing and identify solutions.
“This information will further assist the implementation of the energy actions, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July 2022, and the work of the energy crisis committee is already at an advanced stage.”
Political parties over SA’s energy crisis
DA leader John Steenhuisen will deliver a public address on “solutions to urgently tackle Eskom’s imminent collapse and fast track the procurement and provision of electricity to our nation where the ANC has repeatedly failed”.
“As Eskom plunges South Africa into Stage 6 load shedding this week, our country is facing what experts have referred to as a ‘catastrophic’ event as our national electrical grid buckles under the pressure of decades of corruption, mismanagement, and unworkable policy proposals by Ramaphosa, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and the ANC in national government,” read the DA’s statement.
FF Plus MP Wynand Boshoff said he did not expect the energy crisis to be resolved while the ANC was in power.
“Even though the country’s economy is being forced to its knees, the government keeps clinging to two policies, without which the current crisis would not even have existed. They are affirmative action and a resistance to privatisation,” he added in a statement.
“So, power consumers who need reliable power supply will have to generate it themselves, at least for the foreseeable future.”
Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem took aim at Gordhan and Eskom CEO André de Ruyter.
He said De Ruyter and the entire Eskom board must resign immediately, as it had become clear they could not resolve the crisis.
Bloem added it was clear Ramaphosa, Gordhan and De Ruyter did not understand how load shedding devastated the economy.