Eskom is nearing the end of daily power cuts, says Ramokgopa

Eskom is nearing the end of daily power cuts as warmer weather returns towards the end of the year, says electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

Ramokgopa, who gave an update on the energy action plan this week, said generation capacity continues to improve but declined to give a specific date for when load-shedding would become a thing of the past.

“I know when we get into summer conditions that at the current rate generation will far exceed demand,” Ramokgopa said.

“I will not make a public pronouncement about dates but I’m going to give you the [number of] megawatts that are coming on stream. I am confident about our ability to resolve load-shedding. I am giving you the megawatts, do your numbers then you’ll know when load-shedding will end.

“Six weeks ago, it was intensifying stage 6 load-shedding, but now it is 14 to 16 hours of the day with no load-shedding. We are back at stage 3 [and] even that is going to taper down and we will get to a stage where we will not have load-shedding in a 24-hour cycle.”

Ramokgopa said the country has managed to avoid the worst-case scenario of peak winter demand of 34,000MW.

The capacity available was plateauing at about 29,000MW, giving enough room to bring power cuts down to stage 3.

“We came nowhere close to the 34,000MW that we had projected as part of our winter outlook. The most we had was on June 28 when we hit a demand of 31,540MW.

“There is a downward trend that is responsible for us to not have load-shedding for 16 hours per day and stage 3 for eight hours a day. This is by no accident,” he said.

Ramokgopa warned, however, about an increase in demand for electricity due to more people connecting to the grid, saying the issue of transmission needed to be addressed.

“We have put a report together on how we think we can come with a solution that does three things: one is we need to tap into the rich liquidity of the private sector; second, we cannot relinquish ownership; and third is the system operator at Eskom is solely responsible for the management of the grid.”