Some of the interventions that have already been implemented to address SA’s energy crisis following an announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa in July include the recruitment of former Eskom employees with experience and approval for procurement of about 1,200MW of power.
In response to a full week of worsening power cuts, which culminated in the implementation of stage 6 load-shedding on Sunday, minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan said on Monday that the department had been “working around the clock closely with Eskom to ensure that units [that have broken down at coal-fired power stations]” were returned to service.
The state-owned power utility informed the public that while load-shedding would be reduced to stage 5 at midnight on Monday, another unit breakdown occurred and there was no indication yet of when this round of power cuts would end.
“We have mobilised the full resources of our teams together with Eskom to address this immediate challenge of load-shedding. We are alive to the fact that load-shedding impacts on households, businesses and disrupts daily lives of South Africans,” Gordhan said.
The department said that Gordhan had been meeting with the board and management of Eskom to implement immediate solutions to ensure the current generation fleet provided reliable electricity to the country.
The solutions include the approval of emergency procurement of 1,000MW from industrial co-generators and independent producers. This is expected to bring new capacity onto the grid “within two months at the very least”.
Additionally, Eskom has the go-ahead to procure more than 200MW from the Southern African Power Pool. Eskom has previously stated that it needs at least an additional 5,000MW to stabilise the grid and allow for planned maintenance.
In line with the emergency response plan tabled by Ramaphosa about two months ago, Eskom has started recruiting “former experienced employees and energy experts” to ensure reliable maintenance.
According to the department of public enterprises, in the past week alone “18 seasoned energy specialists in power plant operations — some with over 20 years of experience — have re-entered the Eskom system to assist with operations”.
Ramaphosa, who cut short his overseas visits to return to SA amid worsening power cuts, is “annoyed” with the current situation, his spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told Business Day.
“The president wants to know why some of the measures [announced in July] are not being implemented quickly, like the emergency procurement of additional megawatts, which would have alleviated such unplanned outages and crisis situations,” Magwenya said.
Ramaphosa will chair Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, at which Eskom will be at the top of the agenda.
Correction: September 20 2022
This story has been corrected to show that the president is annoyed with the current energy situation, not with specific minister as reported earlier.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.