By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister in the Presidency responsible for Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has arrived at the Kusile Power Station in Mpumalanga.
This follows the start of his visit to several power stations in the country in a bid to end load shedding.
The Kriel and Duvha power stations were the first stops on his tour, which comes after the Presidency announced Ramokgopa would be meeting all stakeholders in his attempt to deal with the energy crisis
Ramokgopa, who is currently being briefed by senior Eskom officials at the Kusile Power Station, kick-started his nationwide tour of the 14 power stations on Monday, to engage with management, workers, and unions.
“Government has taken steps to improve the performance of Eskom’s existing power stations so that the coal-fired power stations that provide 80% of our electricity produce the amount of electricity for which they were designed, “he said.
He said he was convinced that through collective efforts, loadshedding can be resolved.
“Job well done to the Duvha power station team for increasing their energy availability factor to 70% in the past month thanks to technical solutions, improved efficiency, agile leadership and hard work,” Ramakgopa said.
The Minister believes that Eskom employees are the heart of resolving the ongoing energy crisis.
“My view has always been the biggest asset for any organisation is its workers and the reason we’re starting from the bottom up is to appreciate and understand the efforts being made at the station level,”he told media.
“I committed to the country that we’ll be at the station level, examining the issues that affect every unit and getting from the station manager, organised labour and workers about what are the interventions, in their opinion, they think are appropriate to help scale up energy availability,” he said.
The Minister said in the next seven days he will continue to talk with workers to understand the nature and scale of the problem and update the Energy Action Plan (EAP), which President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled last year.
Ramokgopa believes that the EAP’s first pillar, which speaks to improving the availability of existing supply system stability and increasing generation capacity was important.
On Wednesday, he will go to Tutuka and Camden before going to the Lethabo power station the following day.
On Friday, Ramokgopa will be at the Ankerlig open cycle gas turbine and Koeberg power station in the Western Cape.