NEVA MAKGETLA: What causes the tailspin of load-shedding?
SA desperately needs to replace infighting with a laser focus on accelerating access for new suppliers
Continual load-shedding is wearing on everyone. But shouting about it won’t help. Instead, we need to deal with the causes of instability in the electricity supply. The problem is largely due to mounting stress from the years of delay in opening the huge new coal plants at Medupi and Kusile. By extension, the only real solution is to fast-track new sources of electricity — but that requires fundamental transformation of SA’s inherited electricity system.
Medupi and Kusile should have come into full operation between 2015 and 2017 with 6GW of capacity — over a quarter of Eskom’s total. Once they came on line Eskom could decommission older plants that are reaching 50 years old, the end of their planned lifespan. In practice, however, Medupi was only fully commissioned four years late. Since then it has been plagued by breakdowns due to poor design and construction. Kusile has faced similar delays and technical shortcomings...
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