Cape Town – Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has updated the nation on the state of the grid, saying that progress towards ending load shedding is being fuelled by billions of rands’ worth of diesel.
The minister said that Eskom is entering the winter season with greater confidence, supported by a system that is performing more effectively than the one in place in 2023.
“We are expecting a number of units to come into play during the winter period.
“We did make reference to the fact that we now have in our armor Kusile unit number 6 and we also indicated that we do expect that during the winter period we will have the benefit of the Medupi unit number four.
“And all of those things have come into fruition and that has made it possible for us to say to the country that we have not registered load shedding and of course we are anticipating that going into the remaining of the winter and then transitioning into summer.
Watch as Ramokgopa speaks (Courtesy of SABCC News)
“We really don’t expect any major surprises in relation to the performance of the grid,” said Ramokgopa.
With the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) improving from 55% last year to 70% this year; Ramokgopa has assured the media that grid is more stable, with demand currently below 13 000 megawatts — the threshold that would trigger load shedding if exceeded.
Ramokgopa confirmed that Eskom has been burning diesel and using reserve peakers to maintain the grid, spending over R5 billion after facing challenges at the start of the year and being forced to use diesel to meet demand during difficult periods.
The budget for diesel for the current financial year is roughly R12 billion, of which R5 billion has already been spent.
“Yes, it is not a secret that we experienced significant challenges around April, and we relied on diesel to support us. But this diesel was able to support us because it is meant to support us during periods of difficulty,” said Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa explained Eskom’s current approach to managing the grid, emphasizing that the system has stabilised and that diesel use is only necessary when the grid is under strain:
“When we burn diesel, we are meant to burn it because the system is under strain and I am further saying to the whole country–that the system has recovered. You can see the EAF and in fact there are periods in the week where we have to put the machines in cold reserve.
“Cold reserve means we are generating what is more than what the demand is and to protect the grids we must pull back some of the machines.
“We are in that situation. It’s a better situation to be in when you are generating more than what the demand is.
Eskom has now created enough headroom in the system to support economic growth following this year’s improvements, the minister.
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Compiled by Anda Tolibadi
