Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has assured the country load-shedding will be drastically reduced by December.
Speaking to media this week amid concerns over the possible introduction of stage 8, Ramokgopa said he was “more than confident” the country is going to see significantly reduced stages of load-shedding.
“Once we get to do all of this intervention, [including] importing from Mozambique as an example [and] accelerating the procurement of emergency power, I'll be able to aggregate what are those megawatts that are possible.
“And on the basis of those megawatts, I'll be able to say: 'this is the time that we are confident we would be able to have ended load-shedding',” said Ramokgopa.
He said 6,000MW of additional power will be procured by the end of the year.
“By December 24, we would have had an additional 4,000MW the on the grid. We must be very aggressive on the demand side, we must be able to procure this emergency power, and we are looking at about an additional 2,000MW,” said the minister.
“It's about the speed with which the market is able to respond, the speed with which you are able to connect that 2,000MW on the grid of emergency power.
"So if you have that plus the 4,000MW, you are at 6,000MW, including the demand side. We are going to see substantially low levels of load-shedding by the end of the calendar year.”
Ramokgopa 'more than confident' load-shedding will be drastically reduced by December
Image: GCIS
Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has assured the country load-shedding will be drastically reduced by December.
Speaking to media this week amid concerns over the possible introduction of stage 8, Ramokgopa said he was “more than confident” the country is going to see significantly reduced stages of load-shedding.
“Once we get to do all of this intervention, [including] importing from Mozambique as an example [and] accelerating the procurement of emergency power, I'll be able to aggregate what are those megawatts that are possible.
“And on the basis of those megawatts, I'll be able to say: 'this is the time that we are confident we would be able to have ended load-shedding',” said Ramokgopa.
He said 6,000MW of additional power will be procured by the end of the year.
“By December 24, we would have had an additional 4,000MW the on the grid. We must be very aggressive on the demand side, we must be able to procure this emergency power, and we are looking at about an additional 2,000MW,” said the minister.
“It's about the speed with which the market is able to respond, the speed with which you are able to connect that 2,000MW on the grid of emergency power.
"So if you have that plus the 4,000MW, you are at 6,000MW, including the demand side. We are going to see substantially low levels of load-shedding by the end of the calendar year.”
WATCH | We will meet any and everyone to end load-shedding: electricity minister visits Kusile
Ramokgopa last week said the government would meet “any and everyone to end load-shedding”.
This was after he was criticised on social media for his visits to Toyota, Nissan and Zulu King Misuzulu kaZwelithini.
He also visited Kusile power station in Mpumalanga to assess progress on measures taken to bring back online four units at the station by December.
“It will be irresponsible of me to declare there will be no stage 8,” he said.
Ramokgopa couldn't rule out the possibility of higher stages of load-shedding in winter, but said the ministry, working with Eskom, was striving to remain within lower levels.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure we don't go to higher stages of load-shedding.”
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