Rolling power outages, known locally as load-shedding, have been instituted since 2008 to protect the electricity grid as state power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. fails to generate enough energy to meet demand from its old and poorly maintained coal-fired plants.
“Existing legislation and institutions, if used in good faith, provide all that is necessary to get over load-shedding as fast as reasonably possible,”said Hilton Trollip, an energy research consultant and fellow at the University of Cape Town. Energy minister Gwede Mantashe has raised the option of securing electricity from floating gas-fired plants if legal obstacles are removed.
Efforts to improve the performance of power plants and bring new capacity onto the grid have fallen short, and with elections looming next year the ANC is under mounting pressure to turn the situation around. That experience will undermine support for implementing similar dispensations and the additional measures don’t appear to be needed, said Happy Khambule, energy and environment manager for lobby group Business Unity South Africa.
The ANC should be fired