Jonathan Paoli
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa gave a media update on the expected increase in power generating capacity, despite setbacks, he said.
Ramokgopa briefed members of the media on Monday, about the status of implementing the Energy Action Plan at GCIS Auditorium, Tshedimosetso House, Pretoria.
“We should be able to get to a stage where we are able to firstly build resilience and reliability of these units, but also create an additional buffer.” he said, claiming a sufficient reserve margin is required to assist the generating capacity as a whole.
Ramokgopa went on to discuss how the concept of electricity availability factor fails to adequately illustrate the real situation, since it remains only an aggregation of all the 14 power stations.
He added that additional set backs were caused by some units not recovering as expected. Ramokgopa said the failure to return these units has also reduced generation capacity, adding that boiler tube leaks remain the major cause of unplanned outages.
“ Boilers must be maintained, boiler tubes cannot take the thermal fatigue and erosion without failing”.
The minister said that while the country has been on Stage 6 load shedding for the past few days, Eskom is expected to see some reprieve on Tuesday with over 5000 MW expected to return to the grid.
Specifically, it is projected that from the 14th to the 18th July, an increase of 6800 megawatts of additional generating capacity will be introduced which will boost performance going forward, said Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa stressed the importance of Eskom building both resilience and reliability in line with what ANC Secretary-General, Fikile Mbalula, claimed at the NEC Outcomes briefing, to be the NEC’s commitment towards ending load shedding which has had a serious negative impact on both social well being and economic development.
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