Cape Town – Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown says due to the current energy challenges, the country is faced with a tough few years ahead.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Responding to a debate on the challenges that Eskom is currently facing, the Minister said what happened at the Majuba power station was an unexpected incident and that the state of affairs related to electricity supply and the power grid means that South Africans should exercise patience.
“The bad news is that it is going to be very tough for about two years longer and patience will be needed on the part of all citizens.
“The good news is that … if we take certain critical actions, there is every reason to believe that from 2018, things are going to be looking a whole lot brighter. There are major challenges ahead to achieve a much improved outlook in 2018,” she said.
The debate took place at the back of Eskom’s announcement that the grid was under pressure following the incident at the Majuba power station. A coal storage silo, which stored over 10 000 tons of coal at the power station in Mpumalanga, collapsed recently, affecting coal supplies to all six units at the power station.
Minister Brown said the first step in addressing Eskom’s challenges was to ensure that the power utility is set on a path of financial stability.
To address this, she said Cabinet recently took a decision to combine a number of large-scale initiatives to achieve this goal.
She said the intervention has been acknowledged by Eskom’s toughest critics, including ratings agencies, as an action that showed the seriousness and commitment to deal with the utility’s challenges.
The current power challenges would not be happening if the much anticipated Medupi power station had been online, but that delays caused by strike action, among others, resulted in construction not being concluded on time.
“The good news is that by the middle of next year, the first unit of the giant Medupi power plant should be adding 800 MW of power more to our system. This will be followed by another 8 800 MW of new power at regular intervals as the other five Medupi units and Kusile come on stream.
“So, the bottom line is the next few years are going to be tough. We will be hit by the inevitable unplanned problems, which hit all utilities globally. However, we have an excellent understanding of the problems ahead and have every reason to believe that with the right kind of commitment, there are credible solutions to all of these problems,” the Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za
