[LISTEN] Eskom on Track to Halt Load Shedding on Saturday – Looking at Solutions to Assist South Africans
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says the power utility remains on track to halt load shedding at 5am on Saturday.
De Ruyter was briefing the media on the current system challenges facing Eskom which has plunged the country in different stages of load shedding.
On Tuesday, de Ruyter said load shedding will be reduced to stage 3 from 5am on Wednesday and stage 2 until 5am Saturday.
De Ruyter says Eskom wants to give South Africans “as much information as possible” about the state of generation and the challenges faced.
“We remain on track for lifting load shedding at 5am on Saturday. We have been able to recover emergency diesel reserves.”
Responding to a question about South Africans suffering major losses with regards to the impact of load shedding and if Eskom can subsidise alternative power sources for poorer households to keep the lights on which may include generators and inverters, Eskom’s Monde Bala says they are considering the proposals.
“Definitely it’s some of the solutions that we are looking at going into the future. So, when the time is right we will get back with our full proposals, but we just need to make sure that we follow the proper governance to get to that point.”
Commenting on the R131 billion deal announced at COP26, de Ruyter says the commitment needs to be translated into an agreement between the South African and foreign governments which include the US, UK, France, Germany.
“The presidency has nominated a senior official to lead the technical task team and negotiations will commence very shortly to enable that to happen. The funds at this stage are allocated to the Eskom just energy transition which will receive the lion’s share of the initial allocation of funds to support the introduction of EVs into SA and a transition to a more hydrogen-based economy.”
Bala confirms that 28 municipalities do their own load shedding and based on Eskom’s system, two were found to be fully compliant while the others were either partially or non-compliant.
Listen to the response on assisting South Africans by Monde Bala
