Minister of Electricity talks efforts to lessen the intensity of load shedding
Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said over the next two months, more generating units are expected to return to service.
Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has expressed the importance for Eskom to up the reliability of generating units to maintain the credibility of efforts to lessen the intensity of load shedding.
MINISTER OF ELECTRICITY DR RAMOKGOPA VISITS POWER STATIONS
Ramokgopa spoke at Arnot Power Station in Mpumalanga yesterday, where he kicked off a series of follow-up visits to power stations.
“We are on track to reducing significantly the intensity of load shedding. Of course, we had a period of eight days with no load shedding, then we hit a snag where 11 units were out due to boiler tube leaks. Those units are coming back.” – Dr Ramokgopa
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SA Gov News reports that the Minister of Electricity said it is important that they maintain the reliability of these units so that they are able to restore and maintain the credibility of their efforts and the ability of Eskom to resolve this challenge.
HOW LOAD SHEDDING WILL BE REDUCED IN THE COMING MONTHS
Ramokgopa said over the next two months, more generating units are expected to return to service – further boosting generation capacity for the grid.
“We are expecting Kusile [Power Station] Unit 2 to come on stream by the third week of November, and Unit 5 by the third week of December.
“But that’s not sufficient. We need additional generation capacity, especially renewable energy sources because the Eskom fleet alone won’t resolve load shedding and secure energy security. That’s why we are investing a lot of effort and resources to ensure that we find a solution for the financing and rollout of transmission,” he said.
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FINANCIAL BACKING REQUIRED
The Minister said financing for the rollout will cost “upward of R390 billion”.
“We are at an advanced stage, and taking a proposal to Cabinet to say this is how we think we can tap into the liquidity that exists in the private sector so that we don’t just over-rely on these units that are ageing.
“We need additional generation sources and those principally have to be renewables. But renewables need transmission capacity… renewables also thrive on the existence of baseloads [like] coal, nuclear and hydro, [which] are some of those that are important to the resolution of this problem,” the Minister of Electricity explained.
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