{"id":98224,"date":"2014-03-07T10:01:18","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T08:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=98224"},"modified":"2014-03-07T11:53:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T09:53:24","slug":"expect-electricity-problems-for-years-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/government\/98224-expect-electricity-problems-for-years-expert.html","title":{"rendered":"Expect electricity problems for years: expert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eskom<\/a> started implementing load-shedding across South Africa on 6 March 2014 – and the bad news is that the electricity shortfall is not a problem which will be fixed anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Andrew Etsinger<\/a>, senior manager at Eskom, told Radio 702 that the underlying vulnerability of the electricity grid will continue beyond the commissioning of the first generator at the new Medupi power station.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will persist for the next two years \u2013 it will take that long for us to bring capacity on and to catch up on the maintenance backlog which we have on our existing fleet of generators,\u201d said Etsinger.<\/p>\n

He explained that, in two years, there will be a significant improvement, but for the next two years Eskom will be vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be rain today, it can be severe cold weather over the country during winter,\u201d said Etsinger. \u201cOur ability and our buffer to absorb such shocks to our system is unfortunately reduced at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n