Minister of Electricity and Energy, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says the power grid is expected to be strengthened with generating units expected back by the end of August.
He was speaking during a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday morning.
“We are expecting Medupi Unit 4 to give us 800MW [megawatts] and to fire up Kusile Unit 6, which is another 800MW. We are hoping to get an extension of life of Koeberg Unit 2… We are not complacent. We are doing everything by the book and we are still optimistic about getting that extension of life, and it will give us an additional 980MW.
“We do expect that by the end of August this year, just from the Eskom fleet, we should be getting an additional 2 500MW,” he said.
The Minister cautioned, however, that although “we remain buoyant” regarding Eskom’s performance, load shedding is still not a thing of the past.
“I really want to caution that load shedding is not behind us. In the next three weeks or so Eskom will be sharing what the summer outlook is. We are still buoyant about the performance of these generation plants.
“Having said that, we need to caution against any early declaration to decree load shedding as behind us. We do everything possible to resolve this question but the numbers do indicate that we are within touching distance,” Ramokgopa said.
The Minister made special mention of Tutuka, Kendal and Kriel power stations.
“Tutuka has experienced a significant amount of challenges over a period of time… but we are seeing results now. Just this period from March to August, the unplanned capacity loss factor [UCLF] has reduced by 29%. That’s significant from where Tutuka started; they’ve moved from 2 411MW to 949MW.
“At Kendal, there were major issues with regard to exceeding the emissions standards, so there [were] a number of interventions that had to be made. Today… we were able to reduce the [UCLF] from 2 500MW out and now we’re sitting at about 919MW.
“We have seen exceptional results at Kriel, with the reduction in the UCLF having gone down 53% from 1 400MW to about 508MW,” the Minister said.
He explained that change in leadership at the helm has changed the trajectory of those stations.
“The people issues do matter and the Eskom leadership has taken that into account. The fact that you place the most seasoned, loyal and patriotic individuals to be at the helm of those power stations has given us the kind of results that are required,” Ramokgopa said. – SAnews.gov.za
