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Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. File photo: ALET PRETORIUS/REUTERS
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. File photo: ALET PRETORIUS/REUTERS

New electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has hit the ground running, as he promised he would do. He should be commended for his efforts for visiting power stations to obtain first-hand information about their operations and challenges, and for his apparently easy interactions with the media. 

In short, the optics have mostly been good, but the crushing reality for this minister, appointed with the singular mandate to stop power failures, is that power stations don’t run on optics. With the country presently battling to subsist without electricity for 10 hours a day and a cold dark winter on the doorstep, there are limits to what any newly appointed minister can do short of summoning divine intervention. 

However, there are certain things Ramokgopa shouldn’t do. Among them is entangle himself in the renewablesversusfossil fuels debate. His proposal to extend the life of coal-fired power stations is a case in point. Besides the questions it raised about the integrity of SA’s commitment to the so-called just transition, policy certainty and climate justice, the fact is extending the lives of power stations is not going to affect load-shedding tomorrow or next week. So it’s not really Ramokgopa’s brief. 

Perhaps his proposal was intended to make power station workers feel a bit better; he did say their morale was low, which could be linked to the schedule of power station closures in years to come. By raising morale, his theory could be, they’d put more into their work and generate more electricity. Once again, this appears more spin than short-term power related. 

If the workers at coal-fired power stations are depressed about the prospect of losing their jobs, the appropriate treatment is not to promise to keep burning coal a little longer but to actually implement the just transition. A transition that is not only about environmental justice but also human and economic justice. There is no justice in a transition that leads to large-scale job losses. Workers in the coal sector must be trained in new skills, so that when the time comes for the facility at which they work to close they will still have livelihoods. 

Of course, SA is presently scheduled to keep burning coal at its newest power stations for another 70-odd years. That might change if in the meantime we develop affordable battery storage methods to store renewably generated energy or build another nuclear power station. 

There’s no doubt that SA’s fledgling renewable energy sector must be dramatically upscaled, but its growth is presently inhibited by bureaucracy and a shortage of capacity to convey electricity around the country. Enhancing transmission capacity is therefore among Eskom’s most pressing priorities. 

The development, and hopefully localisation, of the renewable sector makes sense in many ways. Few besides those living on a flat earth disagree, these days, that wind and solar generated power are a critical part of our immediate to long-term future. But decisions on expanding the sector, welcome as they’ll be, won’t bring short-term load-shedding relief either. 

It is said that too many cooks spoil the broth. Before the creation of Ramokgopa’s job there were already two ministers invested in energy and Eskom (Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan). The ministers of finance and the environment also have key areas of responsibilities. 

The difficulty for Ramokgopa, appointed to “project manage” load-shedding in a hurry, is that there aren’t many shortcuts. SA presently relies on its fleet of coal power stations to generate the vast majority of its power. These facilities must be adequately managed and properly maintained without shortcuts, missed services or knock-off parts. 

Consideration should also be given to short-term schemes to underwrite citizens’ stepped conversion to renewable energy — beginning with the installation of solar geysers. The more solar panels and geysers installed next week, the less electricity will be drawn from Eskom. 

And any possible interventions to speed up systems to enable private generators of power to sell their product into the system must take place to keep reducing Eskom’s load. It is on such short-term interventions that the minister should be focused.

• Herron, an MP, is GOOD secretary-general. 

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