Power grid now in 'recovery phase' - Ramokgopa

Ramokgopa briefed the media on the progress of government’s energy action plan on Sunday.

He said they are now in the recovery phase following positive developments on the grid.

“Positive developments in various areas had all contributed to steady, stable and general improvement, with the current outlook being no load shedding for 16 hours per day and stage 3 for eight hours a day.

“We hit a demand high on June 28 at 31,000MW, but now we are beginning to plateau at 29,000MW.”

Ramokgopa added that recoveries in generation meant Eskom was able to ramp up planned maintenance in winter.

“We are diagnosing the situation to determine where the failures of these units are, and then looking at the common problems. We have found boiler tube leaks to be the main culprit and we have the expertise to address this.

“At the moment we are averaging 1,503MW a day on outage slips, down from a high in May of about 4,000MW.

At the same time Ramokgopa warned that the demand for electricity is expected to increase as more people are connected to the grid, meaning the issue of transmission needs to be addressed.

“We need to resolve this with finances. We have drawn up a report on this that says first we need to tap into the rich liquidity of the private sector.

“Second, we cannot relinquish ownership. Eskom must be solely responsible for the ownership and management of the grid. There must be energy sovereignty.”

Ramokgopa said he had visited an operational site during the week to look at issues of fraud, crime and safety along with the State Security Agency and the police. 

"I received a detailed account of some impressive progress that has been made, but I will have a dedicated briefing on that matter.

“We have found linkages between syndicates, but I will leave that for now. I can just assure you that there has been significant progress.”

ALSO READ