Tonight, I want to address you about the energy crisis that is confronting our nation.
This is a call for all South Africans to be part of the solution; to contribute in whatever way they can to ending energy scarcity in SA.In the past 10 days, I have held extensive discussions with the Eskom executive management, power station managers and former Eskom personnel. The construction of our newest power stations, Medupi and Kusile, started late and they have experienced several delays and some design flaws.As a result of this, Eskom deferred essential maintenance to keep the lights on, which is causing breakdowns and failures now.
The factors that led to the latest load-shedding included a number unit breakdowns at some power stations. While these actions to stabilise electricity generation have brought relief from the current load-shedding, the system remains vulnerable and unreliable.It deters investment and reduces our economy’s competitiveness.
A further 2,600MW of capacity has been procured through Bid Window 5, which will begin to add capacity from early 2024. This measure enabled these generators to have the ability to sell electricity to one or more customers, such as factories, mines or data centres.A number of municipalities are already in the process of doing so.
It is now been decided that over the next 12 months, Eskom will increase the budget allocated for critical maintenance to increase the reliability of its generation capacity. As part of addressing the shortage of megawatts, Eskom will now also purchase additional energy from existing private generators such as mines, paper mills, shopping centres and other private entities that have surplus power.
Eskom will implement a programme that encourages efficient energy use by consumers to reduce demand at peak times.The debt continues to be a huge burden on Eskom’s ability to address its many challenges.The minister of finance will outline how government will deal with this matter in an effective manner when he presents the Medium-Term budget Policy Statement in October.