No easy solutions to SA’s electricity crisis, Ramaphosa says

After working with ministers and senior officials on additional measures to accelerate efforts to increase electricity supply‚ government would soon complete detailed work and consultations to finalise further measures to achieve the goal of ending load-shedding much faster, President Cyril Ramaphosa says.

“The message is clear: this is no time for business as usual. We need to act boldly to make load-shedding a thing of the past,” he said in his weekly newsletter on Monday.

“There are no easy solutions to our electricity crisis‚ but we are committed and determined to explore every avenue and use every opportunity to ensure we generate enough electricity to meet the country’s needs.”

Ramaphosa says the outrage and frustration shown by residents towards load-shedding‚ which has been a reality for more than a decade‚ is justified.

This comes after Eskom recently implemented stage 6 load-shedding after the loss of more than 18‚000MW of generation capacity due to unit breakdowns and a strike by employees.

Ramaphosa admitted load-shedding had in the past two weeks disrupted the economy and caused extreme hardship for all.

“At times like these it can feel like there is no end in sight. But while load-shedding appears to worsen‚ the reality is we have already taken several important actions to address the shortfall in electricity supply‚” he said.

Law enforcement agencies are working hard to tackle sabotage‚ theft and fraud at Eskom to address the threat these criminal actions pose to the electricity system, Ramaphosa said. He cited the agreement between Eskom and labour unions as important to enable critical repairs and return units to operation.

Ramaphosa said the transmission line from Mozambique had been restored‚ effectively adding 600MW to the grid. He said the return of a Medupi unit to service at the weekend further eased the shortfall.

The government’s immediate priority is to stabilise the electricity system‚ according to Ramaphosa.

“As the system recovers and generation capacity is restored‚ Eskom will be able to reduce load-shedding to lower stages.

“In the end‚ the bottom line is that we need more capacity in the grid. This will create space for Eskom to undertake critical maintenance and increase reliability of its fleet. It will also create a buffer so even if several units experience breakdowns at once‚ other resources can be used.”

Ramaphosa said Eskom had made land available next to existing power stations for private investment in renewable energy projects. Design modifications had been completed to improve the performance of Medupi units 1‚ 2 and 3.

“While these actions are significant and will bear fruit over the coming months‚ they are clearly not enough to address the crisis we face. What the past two weeks have demonstrated is that we need to do more and with the utmost urgency.”

TimesLIVE