Significant action to keep the lights on, according to Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity in the Presidency, include planned maintenance, during low peak times.
Speaking to media yesterday, about the progress of the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa said the Eskom technical team took advantage of low demand to do maintenance.
“Demand between the 22 – 29th December 2023, was around 20,000 Megawatts (MW), as compared to a Winter peak of 33,000 MW in June last year.”
In addition to maintence of units, Unit 1 of Kusile power plant, has returned to the grid, 5 months later than expected.
He also said Koeberg is now on stream, having passed the full load rejection tests on the 30th of December 2023.
Unit 5 of Kusile is now synchronized to the grid, or at least some 60% of it, while balancing and optimization tests are underway.
“Transmission is an indispensable part of loadshedding.”
“To flatten the curve, to increase “no-loadshedding days”, improving generation capacity is key, with a focus on reliability and efficiency of units” he said.