Current load shedding due to planned maintenance: Ramokgopa

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Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the country is experiencing stages three and four rolling blackouts due to Eskom ramping up planned maintenance.

Tomorrow, unit 2 at the Koeberg Power Station in Cape Town will be taken down for further maintenance.

Ramokgopa told the media in Pretoria that Eskom does not expect any delays in returning the unit online next year.

“It is important that you are able to do maintenance, the more you postpone maintenance, you are kicking the can down the road and it is going to catch up with you and then you are going to experience rapid failure of units. So, it’s as a result of the ramped up planned maintenance. So that’s the first one. Essentially the benefits that you have putting in the on the reduction in your unplanned capacity loss vector, then they get to the eating some of them by that plant maintenance and then and then that reduces your available capacity.”

Diesel budget

Ramokgopa says Eskom is still within budget in its diesel usage. He says the power utility conscious in its use of open gas turbines to keep the diesel spending within the R30-billion allocated budget.

“We’ve taken a conscious decision that I think we have been within those units. So, it is important that you are a bit more judicious in how you pay. You don’t want to get to a situation where you are running out of funds. Remember, I did indicate that there’s about R30 billion, so it’s important that you keep within that budget. Essentially what we have been witnessing is the true health of the system without necessarily the assistance of the open cycle devices.”

Ramokgopa’s full briefing below: