{"id":544461,"date":"2024-07-13T14:56:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T12:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=544461"},"modified":"2024-07-13T14:56:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T12:56:16","slug":"load-shedding-will-be-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/investing\/544461-load-shedding-will-be-back.html","title":{"rendered":"Load-shedding will be back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Load-shedding is not a thing of the past in South Africa, with experts warning that it will return. Government officials, including President Ramaphosa, added that the country\u2019s electricity supply remains vulnerable.<\/p>\n

South Africa has experienced over 100 days without load-shedding, the longest streak since 2020.<\/p>\n

This is largely due to the improved performance of Eskom\u2019s coal-fired power stations, which have undergone intense maintenance over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

These power stations have become significantly more reliable, improving the utility\u2019s overall energy availability factor (EAF) and ensuring it can meet demand.<\/p>\n

The extended period without load-shedding, which has even lasted into winter, has given South Africans hope that power cuts may be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

However, several experts, the utility, and the President have cautioned against this optimism, saying the electricity system remains finely balanced.<\/p>\n

In a recent statement, Eskom said its winter outlook is still in full force despite the improved performance and Kusile Unit 5 coming online. This outlook predicted the utility would keep load-shedding to an average of stage 2 during the colder months.<\/p>\n

It also said that managing the morning and evening peaks has become increasingly difficult for the utility, which threatens to push Eskom to reintroduce rotational power cuts.<\/p>\n

So far, the utility has managed to avoid this but has had to reintroduce load reduction, which reduces electricity supply to areas of elevated demand to ensure its infrastructure is not overloaded.<\/p>\n

It emphasised that load reduction is not load-shedding, as it still had sufficient generating capacity to meet the country\u2019s electricity demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cLoad reduction is a long-established process that Eskom uses in specific areas when there is sufficient electricity available, but a transformer\u2019s integrity is at risk due to overloading,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Load-shedding may return<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In his weekly letter to the public, President Ramaphosa urged caution against thinking load-shedding is a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur electricity system remains vulnerable, and we cannot yet rule out a possibility of further load shedding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President urged the Government of National Unity (GNU) to continue the reform of the electricity sector by increasing private participation.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa said the milestone of 100 days without load-shedding is a testament to the success of these reforms and is not a reason to relax.<\/p>\n

This warning echoes sentiments similar to those of Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.<\/p>\n

Ramokgopa said it is in the nature of Eskom\u2019s work for it to suffer setbacks, as it is such a complex organisation to manage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still working on the reliability of these machines, and that\u2019s why you can\u2019t speak with great confidence that load-shedding is behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a false claim that can\u2019t be substantiated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Energy experts warn against too much optimism<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Kuben Naidoo, former South African Reserve Bank deputy governor<\/p><\/div>\n

Experts from outside government have also warned that load-shedding will return, with energy analyst Chris Yelland saying that Eskom may still implement power cuts this winter.<\/p>\n

Yelland said that while the intensity and regularity of load-shedding may have significantly reduced, power cuts will still happen.<\/p>\n

He explained that another contributing factor to the reduction in load-shedding is a warmer-than-usual winter and lower demand due to households and companies cutting their reliance on Eskom.<\/p>\n

This is unlikely to last, as demand will ramp up during a cold snap and when big industries begin to grow their output again.<\/p>\n

While big mining companies have invested billions in renewable energy projects to power their mines, reducing their emissions and reliance on Eskom, they still consume a substantial amount of electricity.<\/p>\n

In particular, smelters across South Africa owned by Glencore, South32, and others are massive electricity consumers and cannot be powered by renewables.<\/p>\n

Former Reserve Bank deputy governor Kuben Naidoo warned that once this industry begins to ramp up demand, load-shedding will be reintroduced.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal view is that half of the reason we don\u2019t have load shedding is because the mining sector is in a deep recession,\u201d Naidoo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you switch on the mining sector, I think load shedding will return, so we still need to continue investing in renewable energy and other energy sources to break that constraint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

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

South Africa may experience load-shedding again despite Eskom’s improvements in electricity supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341119,"featured_media":535159,"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":[10034,1952,181,29264,35,79794,8487,62924],"class_list":["post-544461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-chris-yelland","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-eskom","tag-glencore","tag-headline","tag-kuben-naidoo","tag-load-shedding","tag-south32"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544461"}],"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=544461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544463,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544461\/revisions\/544463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}