Africa-Press – South-Africa. Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has finally publicly shared his plans to end the energy crisis after tabling it to the ANC national working committee and national executive committee (NEC).
During an hour-and-a-half-long engagement with the media at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Johannesburg, Ramokgopa presented an 18-month plan to create about 12 000MW of additional electricity capacity.
He said this would counter the increased electricity demand his department foresees during winter and ensure that there wasn’t a total collapse of the economy.
Ramokgopa said the immediate interventions to be implemented within the next six months included reducing Eskom infrastructure sabotage, purchasing diesel worth around R30 billion, improving the efficiency of underperforming power stations and reducing maintenance work, particularly during peak demand.
“Even with the proposed intervention, we will not stop load shedding, but we seek to ensure that the economy continues to sustain itself. We want to ensure that the levels of load shedding still make it possible for major industries to operate… so that there is no collapse of the South African economy,” Ramokgopa said.
He added:
Regarding diesel procurement, Ramokgopa said the R30 billion came from two particular avenues.
“What we know about the diesel is that in the 18% tariff increase which the National Energy Regulator of South Africa has granted to Eskom, R8 billion has been set aside to procure diesel by the power utility.
“We also know that in terms of the fiscal relief that the minister of finance has offered to Eskom, there is an additional R22 billion that Eskom has also made available for the procurement of diesel. So, the point we are making there is that we have confirmed R30 billion that is available for diesel procurement,” Ramokgopa added.
The electricity minister said the government should also consider buying diesel directly from suppliers and not third parties, which led to unnecessary procurement fees.
He said the ANC NEC had approved his plans to request assistance from specialists to improve the performance of Eskom’s fleet of 15 coal-fired power stations.
“We seek to work with the private sector, particularly experts, to improve the performance of our power stations,” said Ramokgopa.
In particular, the Medupi and Kusile power stations are a priority.
The addition of renewable power into the grid was another priority, said Ramokgopa, who indicated that Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was finalising power purchase agreements.
Ramokgopa said the mistake that was made with past acquisitions was identifying preferred bidders in areas where there was no grid capacity to transmit electricity.
“Bid Window 7 must be allocated in areas with grid capacity in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West,” Ramokgopa added.
According to Ramokgopa, Eskom is also negotiating with Mozambique to get 1 200MW of additional capacity.
Despite these interventions, the electricity minister said there was no chance that the current government would end load shedding before the end of the year. He said the likelihood was that the intensity of load shedding would be reduced, but not ended.
ANC economic transformation committee chairperson Mmamoloko Kubayi said President Cyril Ramaphosa was in the process of assigning powers to the electricity minister, and this should also aid in his ongoing work in the power crisis.
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