President Cyril Ramaphosa has acknowledged the disruption caused by load-shedding and outlined government’s plans to restructure and strengthen the country’s electricity system to fundamentally change the country’s energy future.

Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly letter to the nation that for more than a week now, South Africans have had to endure the disruption and inconvenience of intermittent load-shedding, as the country’s power stations have not been able to produce enough electricity to meet the national demand.

He noted that over the years, it has contributed to slow economic growth and weak investor confidence.

“Resolving our energy challenges isn’t just urgent; it is fundamental to South Africa’s economic recovery. That is why we are making every effort to bring new power generation capacity on line in the shortest possible time,” he said.

Eskom has 15 coal-fired power stations and one nuclear-powered power station, as well as nine smaller stations that run on a combination of diesel, pumped storage and hydroelectricity.
 
He explained that most of the coal power stations are more than 40 years old and are prone to breakdowns.

“A major step forward in the government’s effort was the announcement last week by the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy [Gwede Mantashe] of the companies that had successfully bid to supply 2 000 MW of emergency power to address the gap in capacity,” Ramaphosa said.
 
Power from the R45-billion private sector investment will be produced from solar, wind, liquified natural gas and battery storage. About half of all the materials used in the construction will be locally sourced.

The projects should be providing power to the nation by August next year.

Last week, government released a request for proposals (RFP) for the procurement of a further 2 600 MW of renewable energy under the fifth ‘bid window’ in the country’s programme to buy renewable energy from independent power producers.

He went on to explain that this ‘embedded generation’ will reduce the demand on Eskom’s power stations and will increase the country’s overall generation capacity through private investment.

Ramaphosa said over the course of the next year, government plans to release four more RFPs for new power generation projects, in renewable energy, gas, coal and battery storage, explaining that these projects would be expected to provide over 7 000 MW of electricity.

Meanwhile, he called on South Africans to pay for the electricity they use, whether as individuals, households, businesses, industries or municipalities. He also said illegal connections keeps Eskom and municipal power utilities from improving their infrastructure.

“We are steadily restoring Eskom to technical, operational and financial viability. We are making our electricity system more efficient and competitive. And we are making great strides in bringing new generating capacity online as quickly as possible. We are all looking forward to the day when the power comes on and it stays on. If we push ahead with the work we’ve begun, if we all play our part, that day will soon arrive,” he said.