South Africa: Eskom Moving In The Right Direction , Says Minister Ramokgopa

South Africa’s power utility company, Eskom, is “moving in the right direction” to address the load shedding challenge, according to Minister for Electricity and Energy, Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The country has not experienced load shedding since May this year.

Speaking during a media briefing to update the nation on the state of the electricity grid, Minister Ramokgopa said, “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.”

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 here and there. However, the grid is designed in such a manner where we can call upon the peaking plants to help us sustain the performance of the grid without relying on load shedding.”

According to the Minister, before the winter season, Eskom had warned that load shedding would be implemented if unplanned outages exceeded 13,000MW. “We are doing substantially better than that. We are beginning to see that the system is stable, resilient, and becoming more reliable as we move on.”

The Minister congratulated the over 42,000 men and women at Eskom for their hard work and dedication to resolving the country’s electricity crisis. “We are more than confident that we are getting out of the woods,” he said.

Between April and August 8, power stations have been operating with an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) that has reached 60.14%. The Minister noted that this is a significant improvement from 2023, when the EAF was substantially lower.

The Minister emphasized that Eskom has created sufficient space and headroom for the economy to grow, saying, “We are marching, and we are going to get out of the woods.”

With Eskom generating more electricity than demanded during some periods, the Minister believes that the country is on the path to stability and reliability in its electricity supply.

Source: https://energynewsafrica.com