The plans proposed by electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to curb load shedding are going nowhere fast, experts say – and South Africa is steadily marching into a winter “horror show” as a result.
Over the longer term, Ramokgopa has floated a plan to extend the life of coal power stations and to slow down their decommissioning. This, too, has gained political support – although it has been met with wide criticism from the energy sector.this week, the chief economist at the Bureau for Economic Research Hugo Pienaar said that the various initiatives proposed by Ramokgopa are simply the standard practice Eskom has been doing for years to mitigate load shedding going into the winter months.
. Load shedding will only likely improve when private generation and developments at Koeberg and Kusile are completed next year, he said. The constant switching on and switching off is causing severe damage across the network, running into the billions of rands. However, in recent weeks, Eskom has been unable to reliably hit even 27,000MW, often falling below 25,000MW, extending the potential shortfall even further. Without significant interventions on both the demand and supply side, higher stages of load shedding are unavoidable.Kgadmina and Pienaar are not alone in their views and are adding to growing concerns raised among business leaders, analysts and economists.