Johnathan Paoli
Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has expressed his approval of the recent decline in the frequency and intensity of load shedding and said it was a result of aggressive, planned maintenance.
Ramokgopa was briefing the media on Tuesday on the implementation of the energy action plan and said the country was starting to see the effects of Eskom’s maintenance plans.
The Minister cautioned that renewable power sources such as solar was not the “silver bullet”, but one of various interventions that Eskom was currently working on in order to bring the country’s power crisis to an end.
He said that there had been 600 fewer hours of load shedding from December to February this year compared to previous periods.While confirming that it has been 13 days since the power utility has implemented any load shedding, the longest stretch this year without any power cuts.
Stage 1 to Stage 2 load shedding accounted for half of experienced load shedding this year as compared to Stages 4 and 5 last year, he said.
“So what is the message that we are conveying here? It’s that the intensity of load shedding is coming down and that’s the point I make all the time. It’s just a general appreciation on the trendline,” the minister said.
Ramokgopa said that it was a misnomer to talk of renewables saving the country from load shedding, in light of the extent to which weather conditions defined how effective renewables were.
The Minister said in the next five months, the country was expected to see over 2,500MW of new generation coming on line.
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