As part of the implementation of the National Energy Action Plan (EAP), he said that as additional megawatts were added to the grid, some of the troubled generating units would be taken out of service to ensure the whole system was more reliable in the future.
This allows us to ensure that national energy company Eskom doesn’t have to make sudden changes later if we promise to introduce a Stage X blackout.
“I think there was one day when we changed the lockdown plan three times in about six hours,” the minister recalled.
That undermines the credibility of our efforts, he added, but also the ability of industries and households to plan.
Among other things, the measures we are taking, he added, focus on reducing the Unplanned Loss of Capacity (UCLF), defined as the ratio between unavailable energy and the total net installed capacity of all units in a given period.
On the other hand, he pointed out that load shedding (local term for power outages) is currently not falling as planned and desired and that level 3 (daily reduction of feed-in into the national electricity grid by three thousand MW) should not be exceeded.
Ramokgopa also announced that close attention is being paid to the delayed restoration of the Koeberg nuclear power plant, the only one of its kind in South Africa.
He added that the plant was scheduled to shut down in July 2024, but the operating license has been extended to ease ongoing power outages in the country.
NMR/MV