Electricity Minister says the end of load shedding will start happening in March.
Despite “obstacles, uncertainties, and temporary setbacks,” load shedding will finally disappear, according to Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister in the Presidency for Electricity. According to him, changes will begin in March 2024.
The Minister described the steps taken by Eskom and the government to swiftly address the country’s energy issue, including increasing the capacity of new generation and restoring units to service sooner rather than later.
He was addressing at Cape Town City Hall on Tuesday during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) discussion.
“We will start reducing planned maintenance in March 2024.”
“This also means that heading into the winter peak demand period, we can claw back up to 2 000MW by tapering planned maintenance and strengthening available capacity.
“From March of 2024, we will begin reducing planned maintenance from the current 6 000MW to 5 000MW in April 2024 and to around 3 500MW in May 2024, a threshold that will be sustained during the winter demand period,” says Ramokgopa
“The path to achieving a stable and sustainable energy landscape has been fraught with obstacles, uncertainties, and temporary setbacks and yet, with each passing day, we continue to register progress as we chart the path to energy security.
“The end of load shedding is indeed in sight; the future is bright,”
Medupi Power station
“Units 1 to 3 of Kusile [Power Station], which had been out of service since October of 2022, were successfully returned ahead of schedule. As planned, Unit 5 was synchronised to the grid in December 2023, contributing 800MW. The four Kusile Units collectively injected 3200MW of capacity into the grid.
“Medupi [Power Station] Unit 4 will return to service this year in September, a year ahead of schedule. Kusile Unit 6 will be synchronised in late November 2024. These units will add 1600MW to the grid. In addition, Unit 2 of Koeberg [Power Station] will return to service in September 2024, giving us 980MW following a planned outage. These interventions will collectively add 2580MW to the grid in 2024. The end of load shedding is indeed within sight,”
