It may be necessary to implement stage 2 load-shedding for a lengthy period, says Jan Oberholzer
13 October 2022 - 18:37
byS'thembile Cele and Rene Vollgraaff
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SA faces another 18 months of regular power cuts and won’t be able to end them until sufficient generating capacity is added to the electricity grid to meet demand, Eskom Holdings SOC COO Jan Oberholzer said. Picture: Bloomberg
SA faces another 18 months of regular power cuts and won’t be able to end them until sufficient generating capacity is added to the electricity grid to meet demand, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said.
“We need another year or year-and-a-half to get out of this,” Oberholzer said at the Agri SA conference near Johannesburg on Thursday. “We are going to go through a tough time over the next year and a half.”
Work that Eskom has done to alleviate the country’s energy crisis will help ensure the situation won’t be as dire as it might have been. Still, it may be necessary for the utility to take a “bold step” and implement so-called stage 2 load-shedding — in which 2,000MW are cut from the national grid — for a lengthy period to enable Eskom to carry out necessary maintenance, he said.
“People can then plan accordingly,” Oberholzer said.
Eskom will halve the amount of power it removes from the national grid to 1,000MW from 4pm on Friday.
It will publish a further update on the afternoon of October 14.
“To the extent possible, Eskom will endeavour to limit load-shedding to night-time to have minimal impact on the economy and population,” it said.
Eskom will sign the first contracts to lease land to five independent power producers on Friday so that they can develop renewable energy projects, the utility said.
The company in June announced it had selected 18 companies to lease sites at its power plants. The bids for about 4,000ha are ultimately for projects expected to realise 1,800MW of renewable energy capacity.
Citizens are angry over the nation’s record power cuts and politicians are seeking to deflect blame for a crisis that has been a quarter of a century in the making.
Stung by criticism, President Cyril Ramaphosa raced home from Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in the UK, cancelling plans to travel on to UN meetings. An announcement followed that the board of Eskom had been replaced and an ambitious efficiency target for its predominantly coal-fired plants was set. Action had been taken.
Yet, in the government’s pronouncements on the crisis, inconvenient facts have been omitted.
Bloomberg News. For more articles like this please visit Bloomberg.com
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Eskom COO sees another 18 months of outages
It may be necessary to implement stage 2 load-shedding for a lengthy period, says Jan Oberholzer
SA faces another 18 months of regular power cuts and won’t be able to end them until sufficient generating capacity is added to the electricity grid to meet demand, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said.
“We need another year or year-and-a-half to get out of this,” Oberholzer said at the Agri SA conference near Johannesburg on Thursday. “We are going to go through a tough time over the next year and a half.”
Work that Eskom has done to alleviate the country’s energy crisis will help ensure the situation won’t be as dire as it might have been. Still, it may be necessary for the utility to take a “bold step” and implement so-called stage 2 load-shedding — in which 2,000MW are cut from the national grid — for a lengthy period to enable Eskom to carry out necessary maintenance, he said.
“People can then plan accordingly,” Oberholzer said.
Eskom will halve the amount of power it removes from the national grid to 1,000MW from 4pm on Friday.
It will publish a further update on the afternoon of October 14.
“To the extent possible, Eskom will endeavour to limit load-shedding to night-time to have minimal impact on the economy and population,” it said.
Eskom will sign the first contracts to lease land to five independent power producers on Friday so that they can develop renewable energy projects, the utility said.
The company in June announced it had selected 18 companies to lease sites at its power plants. The bids for about 4,000ha are ultimately for projects expected to realise 1,800MW of renewable energy capacity.
Citizens are angry over the nation’s record power cuts and politicians are seeking to deflect blame for a crisis that has been a quarter of a century in the making.
Stung by criticism, President Cyril Ramaphosa raced home from Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in the UK, cancelling plans to travel on to UN meetings. An announcement followed that the board of Eskom had been replaced and an ambitious efficiency target for its predominantly coal-fired plants was set. Action had been taken.
Yet, in the government’s pronouncements on the crisis, inconvenient facts have been omitted.
Bloomberg News. For more articles like this please visit Bloomberg.com
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