Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has called for urgency in resolving the energy crisis, saying more megawatts would be added to the grid by the end of the year.
Ramokgopa also said R30 billion had been set aside by Eskom to burn diesel during the winter period and beyond.
This money has been made possible through the fiscal support by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in February and the 18% tariff increases granted to Eskom by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
This would allow Eskom to run its open cycle gas turbines (OCGT).
The OCGTs were running at 11% at the moment, but the availability of R30bn from Eskom would increase this to 21% and help to reduce load shedding.
The government was also hopeful that some of the units that were out of service in Kusile and Medupi would be back on stream by the end of the year.
This would add much needed megawatts on the grid.
Head of generation at Eskom, Bheki Nxumalo, said they hoped to increase the energy availability factor to 60% by the end of the year.
Ramokgopa, who was briefing the media Friday, said there was a growing pipeline of investment in renewable energy.
This would ensure that Eskom expanded participation in the energy sector to other players.
“If you look at the energy action plan, we do anticipate that the outcomes of the energy action plan is to ensure that we are able to crowd in private sector participation on the generation side.
“(This will mean that) we are able to broaden generation; and it’s not only the monopoly that is Eskom but Eskom is also a market player in that space. This pipeline has grown to 10 000MW. We do expect that the first of these projects will be connected to the grid by the end of this calendar year.
“Nersa has provided a ministerial concurrence to the ministerial determination of 14 741MW of new generation capacity. This will be coming from renewable energy sources; solar and wind,” said Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa said they fully understood the need for urgency to bring all the projects online.
They needed to move with speed to protect the economy.
On the energy availability factor they were targeting to have 60% by the end of the year.
Ramokgopa also reiterated the use of OCGTs to minimise the impact of load shedding.
Current Affairs