The power system will remain tight until the Medupi and Kusile power stations start producing power, in over a year, Eskom said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Power supply will ease once Kusile and Medupi are online and producing power… and that will take between 12 and 18 months,” chief executive Tshediso Matona told reporters in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n
Medupi, in Limpopo, was expected to be online by December 24.<\/p>\n
“We may not meet the target, and could see Medupi coming online in early January. We expect to see full power production from Medupi within six months thereafter.”<\/p>\n
Work on getting the Majuba station in Mpumalanga to full capacity was continuing.<\/p>\n
“An average of 1800MW is being fed to the national grid per day. Following the collapse of a silo, five units are running fully,” he said.<\/p>\n
Majuba was able to generate 2900MW during peak periods, he said.<\/p>\n
Eskom group executive Matshela Koko said he led an investigation into the collapse of the Majuba silo.<\/p>\n
“Majuba is urgent… yes, we had a second crack at Majuba, and we will soon take the public into confidence,” Koko said.<\/p>\n
Matona said the blackouts were affected customers in neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
“There is a perception that we loadshed but continue supplying neighbours with electricity. That is not so, cross-border customers are also affected.”<\/p>\n
Eskom load shedding schedule<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n