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South Africa is ebbing out from the crushing electricity outages and the green shoots are distinctly visible. The country has made significant improvements in load shedding in recent weeks due to a major focus on improving generation to an average output of about 60%, which in turn allowed the energy utility to increase planned maintenance. Eskom was also making use of the expertise of more than 100 private sector experts, and beginning to see the fruits of their labour.
South Africa is ebbing out from the crushing electricity outages and the green shoots are distinctly visible. The country has made significant improvements in load shedding in recent weeks due to a major focus on improving generation to an average output of about 60%, which in turn allowed the energy utility to increase planned maintenance. Eskom was also making use of the expertise of more than 100 private sector experts, and beginning to see the fruits of their labour.
As the country braces itself for some of the coldest winter days and ESCOM is confident enough to handle any additional surges in demand due to the significant improvements in the power generation system stated Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The country has been fortunate to have had a relatively mild winter so far, minimum temperatures are expected to fall below zero in parts of Gauteng and the Western Cape and Eastern Cape from Monday and remain low for the rest of the week. Although this has prompted fears that the cold snap could result in more intensive load shedding experienced in recent weeks. The electricity system now had sufficient room to handle even the worst-case demand scenario during peak hours, stated the minister. The resolution of the load-shedding issue is principally on the generation side. Even if demand were to surge to the worst-case scenario, if these machines were performing at the rate at which we were expecting them to, ESKOM shouldn’t have a problem. Even if it (demand) gets to 34 000MW or 36 000MW, we shouldn’t have a problem, he further added.
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Power cuts have also forced many South Africans, who had become hardened to the rolling outages, to find alternative sources such as installing rooftop solar units at the household level.
