Just days after Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa claimed that the end of load shedding may be on the horizon sooner rather than later, the country was plunged into Stage 6 rolling blackouts.
In a statement on Wednesday, the power utility said this was due to the loss of additional generating units that occurred overnight on Tuesday, the extensive use of Open Gas Cycle Turbines and the inability to replenish pumped storage dam levels.
“Stage four load shedding will be implemented at 7am (Wednesday) morning until 2pm.
Thereafter, Stage six load shedding will be implemented from 2pm (Wednesday) until 5am on Thursday.
This pattern will be repeated daily until further notice. Eskom will publish an update as soon as any significant changes occur,” Eskom said.
During a briefing in Pretoria at the weekend, Ramokgopa updated the nation on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan intended to map out long-term solutions to the load shedding crisis. He said he was pleased to announce that the President’s first assignment, to reduce the intensity of load shedding, was achieved.
“In some instances, we have had the opportunity to run the open-cycle gas turbines, and then there would be no load shedding, but we will do it the right way so that when we come out of this, we are confident that we have resolved load shedding. I said when I started this assignment that we will resolve this load shedding, and I think that we will resolve it much quicker than we had anticipated. I don't give dates, I give the megawatts. It's to you to determine when the date is, but I think it is on the horizon," he said.
Energy expert Chris Yelland said politicians should be careful about predicting the future.
“None of us know when the next generating unit will trip.
“The minister is working very hard, that we can see, but the truth is that the generators can trip any time. We should not think that because we have had a good few weeks that we can predict what can happen or that load shedding will end.
South Africans turn to be optimistic when they have had a good few weeks, but things happen.
I am optimistic for the future. “The outlook of the next two years is that we will see some relief, but a lot of work needs to be done and we can only hope, with no certainty that, there will be no further breakdowns,” he said.
Cape Times