Government must lead by example and reduce electricity use, minister says

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has called on government to set an example by reducing electricity use at night.

Some offices that use energy at night when there is no-one there are government buildings, and the minister of public works is taking action to address this, he said during a media briefing.

“The state must lead by example,” he said.

Ramokgopa said those working in government buildings should switch off unused appliances.

“Through simple action we can reduce load-shedding while saving on energy bills,” he said. “We are sometimes at a stage where we should not have load-shedding but we draw from the grid even in instances when we don’t have to,” he said.

Ramokgopa said Gauteng and Mpumalanga are two provinces with sufficient grid capacity.

“There are two provinces where we have a significant amount of capacity available. Eskom was very deliberate about directing the market to areas where there is grid capacity so there is symmetry between grid capacity and opportunity to exploit renewables.”

Last week Ramokgopa said 25 projects to fix Eskom’s load-shedding issues were in construction. Projects were under way to upgrade Eskom’s infrastructure in the areas of generation and transmission.

“The 25 projects can unleash about 13 gigawatts of electricity into the grid. The work starts now to be connected by 2026 to ensure there is additional capacity. We need to ensure we expedite the projects and bring them online quicker so we can expand grid capacity,” said Ramokgopa.

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