Ramokgopa attributed 13 consecutive days of no load shedding to Eskom’s ramped-up planned maintenance.
Eskom will release its winter outlook plan at the end of April but the power utility will update the public before then on how it is addressing load shedding.
This was announced by the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa yesterday at the media briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan.
“We must not lose sight of the fact that ending load shedding is a process and we should look at the trend line since May 2023,” Ramokgopa said.
“Load shedding is devastating to the South African economy and everyday life.”
Ramokgopa attributed 13 consecutive days of no load shedding to Eskom’s ramped-up planned maintenance.
He said that three units that would add 2 400 megawatts (MW) to the grid were due to come online within the next five months.
“We ramped up planned maintenance to the 9 000 MW level during December and January and we are reaping the benefits of that currently, but we must not forget that we will have occasional setbacks,” he said.
“What we need to focus on is the trend and the focus in the planned maintenance programme is to make sure that we have the human resources and the spares at the plant when they are needed. The accelerated procurement process has not sacrificed competitiveness or transparency.”
Ramokgopa said electricity supply was currently higher than demand, adding that planned maintenance allowed for the accelerated sourcing of spares.
“We made the ramping up of planned maintenance very important. If you look at the December period of 2023 going into January 2024, we took out 18% of generation capacity, about 9 000MW at a go for planned maintenance,” he said.
“We are beginning to see that these machines are coming back into service. They’re coming back on load and they are adding to the capacity on the grid and this is helping us to address the demand.”
Ramokgopa also addressed concerns on coal supply, saying Eskom was engaging with the coal mining companies to make sure that the coal delivered to the power plants was of the correct quality and in the contracted quantities.
This also meant that Eskom was investing in the cost-plus mines where some under-investment had taken place in recent years.
As a result, Ramokgopa said coal stockpiles were all at healthy levels and there were no problems with wet coal given the current inclement weather.
“The current improvement in electricity availability is not an accident, but rather the result of a number of things coming together,” he said.
“At the next briefing [in a fortnight] we will give a more detailed exposition of how Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are helping to reduce load shedding. What I can say now is that the IPPs have added 6 450MW to the grid, while rooftop solar adds a further 5 440MW with 1 500 MW of that located in Gauteng.”
Ramokgopa ended by saying that Eskom was also addressing the new build defects identified at Medupi and Kusile power stations.
“I am especially impressed with how the management has been nimble and managed to procure a second-hand generator for Medupi that meant that the damaged unit would be returned to service a full year before the previous anticipated date,” he said.
“That generator arrived at Medupi on 5 March and was offloaded on 11 March, and should add its 800MW to the grid in August.”
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