Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa briefed the media on implementation of the energy action plan on Monday, 9 October.
The minister first gave an update on the performance on the
grid for the previous week. He said that
the return of Kusile units 3 and 2 this month and in November, and the addition
of unit 5 to the grid for the first time late in December, would add a
potential 2,400MW to the system.
Reduced demand coming out of the winter months allowed
Eskom to increase its planned maintenance by approximately 2,000MW to 5,381MW,
and breakdowns were reduced from 17,300MW in May to 14,100MW currently.
However, an area that is not seeing major improvement is the partial load
losses
Ramokgopa flagged illegal connections as having a major
impact on the country’s distribution infrastructure and a hindrance to Eskom’s
generation capacity. He says the municipal debt, which currently stands at
R64 billion, is also affecting Eskom’s ability to invest in generation
infrastructure.
“As part of the
interventions that National Treasury is proposing for purposes of writing off
the debt to Eskom, part of the requirements is that first municipalities have
to address the issues of illegal connections. Secondly, its municipalities have
to commit themselves to allowing that we have a prepaid meter system and the
dispensation of the prepaid meter system and thirdly, they have to be diligent
payers consecutively over 12 months,” said Minister Ramakgopa.
A few hours after the briefing Eskom chairperson Mpho Makwana resigned. In
a short statement, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said that
Makwana would step down at the Eskom AGM scheduled for the end of October. Makwana
was appointed a year ago and is the shortest-serving chairperson of Eskom to
date. Non-executive director Mteto Nyati will be appointed chairperson of
the board.
Done by: Esona Mfazwe
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