Johnathan Paoli
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said he anticipates renewed stability at Eskom with the appointment of Dan Marokane as the new CEO and that he believes Marokane’s leadership combined with the executive committee’s efforts, would contribute to restoring stability to the power utility.
Ramokgopa said Eskom was doing everything possible to ensure the utility would not be implementing higher stages of load shedding over the festive season.
The minister confirmed a decrease in the number of units breaking down, which has allowed the utility to put in place lower stages of load shedding, following the rolling blackouts being suspended until 4 pm on Sunday afternoon.
“We are working really hard I have to say and this has been the case to ensure that the experience of South Africans over the festive season is really a pleasurable one,” Ramokgopa said.
Last week the High Court in Pretoria made an official ruling about how loadshedding should not affect essential public services and Ramokgopa said Eskom is receiving legal advice on the judgment that the government should exempt schools, hospitals and police stations from load shedding by the end of January.
Ramokgopa said he understood the need to provide uninterrupted electricity, but needed to know how to interpret the judgment and that Eskom would report back to the public once legal advice had been received on the matter.
The minister said that he wanted to assure the public that the government had no intention to abrogate its responsibility of providing electricity without interruption to protect the economy and attract investments.
In addition, the utility announced that it would take Koeberg’s Unit 2 nuclear reactor offline on Monday, 11 December 2023, for the work required to extend its operating licence.
“We are taking out 980MW by tomorrow, and of course, unit 1 is almost at full load. Now we are taking out unit 2 for the same purpose. I spoke to the team and said we have learnt from the mistakes and shortcomings relating to unit 1,” the minister said.
The two separate outages are expected to allow the power utility to test the reactors’ concrete containment structures, which have recently come under criticism for displaying cracks and other structural failures.
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