Six power stations require urgent attention as winter approaches - Ramokgopa

JOHANNESBURG - Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says six power stations need immediate attention as the winter months approach.

Ramokgopa shed some light on the state of the power grid on Monday, announcing the utility’s efforts to ramp up planned maintenance at several plants.

He said the colder months, starting from around May tend to see a significant increase in demand for energy, placing the grid at risk of higher levels of load shedding.

“We have identified six power stations that require urgent and immediate attention because they are likely to give us the best returns and amongst them is Tutuka, Kendal, Kusile. Essentially, over a period of time they come across as being problematic and therefore they require added attention."
 
Ramokgopa said Eskom will present its winter load shedding plan closer to the start of the winter season.

“The more aggressive you go, what we have seen in the short term is that when these units come back they are a bit more reliable, they are a bit more efficient.

"You will see that as we move into the winter period, the more colder days we’re going to bring down our planned outages and as we bring down the planned outages it means we are ramping up on available capacity so that you’re able to meet demand so that we don’t see their intensification of load shedding."