Loadshedding, the least unpopular method by the government to conserve South Africa’s energy reserves has been suspended. In a statement, the power utility said load shedding has largely been suspended as of 5am on Wednesday. “We maintain our guidance that load shedding is largely behind us due to structural improvements in the generation fleet. Our focus remains on eliminating load shedding as a structural constraint on the economy. There will be valuable lessons to be learned from the set of multiple unit trips that were unconnected and purely technical in nature related to electrical and control system issues within auxiliary parts of our power stations.” This was according to Eskom Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane.
The suspension comes after the power utility implemented Stages 3 and 6 of load shedding at the weekend. On Monday, Eskom implemented Stage 4 load shedding and Stage 2 load shedding on Tuesday. “We remain committed to high levels of maintenance, and the results are clear. Our efforts have delivered a 99% electricity availability rate over Eskom’s current financial year, from 1 April 2024 to 21 February 2025, saving R17 billion in diesel costs,” said Eskom Group Executive for Generation, Bheki Nxumalo. Nxumalo said ongoing planned maintenance stands at 6 660MW in alignment with the company’s summer period maintenance strategy, “which is at increased levels in order to prepare for winter and meet licence and regulatory requirements”. “We reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that South Africa will not return to the severe levels of load shedding experienced in 2023,” said Nxumalo.
South Africa’s energy consumption is driven by coal extraction. However, with the transition to renewable energies such as solar and wind, and the decline in coal and gas deposits the country was compelled to find new ways to conserve energy. Electric power can be conserved through not using it in any form. This is one way. However, this has taken its toll on the economy. Eskom is fortunate this time around to have saved on diesel power. R17 billion is a lot of money. This amount should not be squandered. The Power Utility enterprise is known to have been at its most vulnerable during the era of President Jacob Zuma and state capture. A culture of corruption reigned. Now it would appear that Eskom is just coming to terms with cleaning up its act. The SOE is finally utilising the reality that it can no longer rely on power cuts.
“This decision follows the successful recovery of generation capacity and significant progress in replenishing emergency reserves,” the state-owned power utility said. “Although overnight replenishment is still needed, these developments will result in a stable power system.” Eskom implemented stage 3 load-shedding without forewarning over the weekend due to multiple unit trips at Majuba Power Station and a unit trip at Medupi. It then had to escalate power cuts to stage 6 on Sunday morning following multiple unit trips at Camden Power Station. Although Eskom did not commit to a specific timeline for reducing and eventually suspending load-shedding, it said on Sunday that it had already made significant progress in returning the tripped units to service. Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said the power utility anticipated it would be able to suspend load-shedding by the end of the week.
Eskom is still learning the ropes of improving its energy capacity again. The company is juggling with improving its reserves while lowering the stages of load shedding. The good news is Eskom has been at least successful in replenishing the reserves of energy around night time when the energy reserves are the least likely used. The conservation of these reserves was meant to preserve the energy on the power grid. The grid was at high risk of collapsing due to the lack of upgrading the infrastructure at the power stations. This was because resources had become limited. Eskom still has a delicate and cumbersome path to thread depending on how they maximize the stages involved concerning load shedding. The purpose of upgrading infrastructure at the power utilities is to increase the capacity of power throughout the grid.
That said it looks like Eskom and the government are finally coming to terms would improving power and limiting the impact of load shedding.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
