State-owned power utility Eskom has connected more than 300 houses in Bela-Bela and Mookgopong, both Limpopo, to the national electricity grid as part of its electrification programme.
The households were connected to the electricity network for the first time last week, and were the latest of 4.6-million households to gain access to the national grid since 1991 in an effort to achieve universal access by 2025.
“In the next three years, Eskom and municipalities will spend R17.6-billion to connect over 840 000 households to the national grid and an additional 70 000 households will be connected through nongrid solar electrification programmes,” the utility said in a statement.
Statistics South Africa has reported that access to electricity has increased from 35% of households in 1990 to over 90% in 2016.
“Eskom is building new power stations and high-voltage power lines to meet South Africa’s growing energy demand. The electrification programme is now also being implemented in more remote areas, where the construction of network infrastructure is more expensive due to the distances involved and, in some cases, the difficult terrain encountered,” Eskom pointed out.