{"id":529879,"date":"2024-03-24T14:59:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T12:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=529879"},"modified":"2024-03-24T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T13:00:13","slug":"prepare-for-the-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/investing\/529879-prepare-for-the-worst.html","title":{"rendered":"Prepare for the worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africans should prepare for the worst regarding load-shedding. Despite claims from government officials, Eskom has not turned the corner, and the end of power cuts is not in reach.<\/p>\n

This is feedback from the general manager at Energy Partners Power, Charl du Plessis, who said the data does not back up the government\u2019s version of events.<\/p>\n

Politicians have regularly blamed load-shedding on increased maintenance over the past few years, saying that it is \u201cshort-term pain for longer-term gain\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa famously said South Africans should see the current stage 6 load-shedding in a positive light because of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe load-shedding that we are going through now is occasioned by what Eskom has to do to reposition the generation of our fleet,\u201d Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are maintaining our fleet. They are making sure that incidents of load-shedding that have been given rise to in the past because of unplanned load-shedding events like breakdowns are put behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the more intense load-shedding would not last. \u201cThis, as much as it is stage 6, is of a short-term nature,\u201d Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n

Deputy President Paul Mashatile echoed Ramaphosa\u2019s sentiment late last year.<\/p>\n

He told the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association late last year that intensive maintenance was being done at power stations to relieve the ongoing power cuts in the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are allowing Minister Ramokgopa to do a lot of maintenance. So, if you see a bit of a spike at the moment, they are doing intensive maintenance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have taken a lot of them for maintenance. When they return online, you will see reduced load shedding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lately, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has gone so far as to say that there will be\u00a0no need for his position<\/a>\u00a0by the end of the year as load-shedding will be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will not be a need for this ministry by the end of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cI will be the happiest person within three months. More and more, you will wake up to a hot bath. Much later, a cooked meal at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity, at Kendal Power Station.<\/p><\/div>\n

The sobering truth<\/h2>\n

According to the electricity minister, since the reinstatement of unit 3 of the Kusile coal-fired plant, the country has begun to \u2018turn the corner\u2019 in reducing load-shedding.<\/p>\n

While this has provided some relief from load-shedding and will go a long way in curbing the escalation, the fleet\u2019s Energy Availability Factor (EAF) remains very low, said Du Plessis.<\/p>\n

Eskom\u2019s EAF has hovered around the 50% mark, which effectively means that half of Eskom\u2019s generation fleet remains out of service.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the relative gains made towards improving EAF remain well below Eskom\u2019s set target of above 60%.<\/p>\n

Du Plessis said these top-level figures alone show that despite Eskom\u2019s claims that the worst is indeed over, the numbers are simply not adding up.<\/p>\n

Thus, \u201cit may indeed be time to expect the best but prepare for the worst,\u201d said Du Plessis.<\/p>\n

These comments from Du Plessis echo those of energy expert Professor Hartmut Winkler, who\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0South Africans should brace for stage 6 load-shedding in winter as there is no quick fix to the electricity crisis.<\/p>\n

Winkler explained that there are multiple ways to end load-shedding, but no quick solutions exist, so any promises for a swift end to load-shedding are misleading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opposition parties are, of course, saying that if they were in government or if they were given a chance, things would be vastly different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it matters much. If one looks at the parties\u2019 election manifestos, I do not think any party has a solution for fixing load-shedding immediately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ones that claim they do, I do not think know what they are talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0that the current electricity crisis cannot be solved within the next five years.\u00a0Until new generation capacity is implemented, load-shedding is unlikely to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like an old car, once things get to that stage, you are just going to have those very frequent breakdowns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was optimistic about using renewable energy more to combat the energy crisis but cautioned that the government needs to agree on a transition strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we don\u2019t have a clear plan of where to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially going into winter, it will mean that we will see stage 6 load-shedding several times. I am convinced of that. We have already seen earlier this year how quickly load-shedding can come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

This article was first published by Daily Investor<\/a><\/strong> and is reproduced with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy experts are urging South Africans to prepare for load-shedding to be around for much longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341119,"featured_media":467549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80335],"tags":[93143,1952,93145,181,35,8487],"class_list":["post-529879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-charl-du-plessis","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-energy-partners-power","tag-eskom","tag-headline","tag-load-shedding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}