Eskom’s 42,000-strong workforce will be the driving force leading to the end of blackouts, not the government ministers, newly appointed minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told the utility’s employees at Kriel power station Monday.
“The answers to our problems do not lie at Megawatt Park [Eskom headquarters in Johannesburg]...the problem [of load-shedding] will not be resolved by [public enterprises minister Pravin] Gordhan or Ramokgopa,” he said.
Kriel power station recorded an energy availability factor of 54% in January, making it one of Eskom’s best-performing plants.
“If I don’t work with you closely...If I don’t resolve your grievances, then we will not end load-shedding. It is only when we are able to keep the employees of Eskom happy that we can be able to resolve load-shedding,” Ramokgopa said on Monday as he drummed up support from employees at the power station.
The relationship between Eskom and its employees has been under strain in recent times with management previously conceding that the utility’s workforce is bloated.
Labour has rejected job cuts which are aimed at reducing Eskom’s high operational costs.
The strained relationship between Eskom and the demands of the workers last year led to employees embarking on a weeklong strike demanding inflation-beating wages. This led to Eskom implementing stage 6 load-shedding, removing 6,000MW from the grid.
Ramokgopa was addressing workers on the first day of his weeklong tour of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations which forms part of the drive to improve the functioning of the power utility’s performance in line with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s energy action plan to end load-shedding.
On Monday he will also assess the state of the Duvha power station, which recorded a dismal energy availability factor of 20.7% in January. On Tuesday he is scheduled to assess the Kusile and Kendal power plants, followed by Tutuka and Camden on Wednesday, Lethabo on Thursday and Koeberg on Friday.
This is as the Eskom reduced load-shedding to stage 1 on Sunday owing to the improvement of six of its coal-fired power stations achieved energy availability factors of 70% over the past week, “a milestone last achieved on 8 May 2022.” It further suspended load-shedding at 11am on Monday until 4pm on Tuesday when it will impose stage 2 power cuts.
This is, however, far from Eskom’s self-imposed target of reaching an overall average 60% energy availability by the end of March, raising concerns that the utility will return to implementing near-permanent stage six power blackouts that leave large parts of the country without electricity for up to 10 hours a day.
Ramokgopa said as part of the solution to end load-shedding SA should stick to its commitment to reducing the intensity and frequency of blackouts by improving the use of coal, gas and nuclear, which form the baseload of the country’s energy needs while accelerating the onboarding of renewable energy.
SA can’t “wish away” baseload, he said, because it is the oxygen of the SA economy.
“Baseload is the solution to our problems while we accelerate the onboarding of renewable energy [energy sources],” Ramokgopa said.
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