In a national address, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced several immediate and future steps to be taken to address the current energy crisis in South Africa, such as enabling of households and private business to sell surplus electricity generated by rooftop solar systems back to Eskom.

President Ramaphosa said that to end load-shedding, an energy action plan has been implemented that will focus on two areas namely to improve Eskom’s existing generating units and to add as much generation capacity to the grid as soon as possible.

#EnergyActionPlan pic.twitter.com/HRdJ8yDCEh

— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) July 25, 2022

The president announced the cutting of red tape in several areas to improve generation capacity as soon as possible. This includes making the procurement process of maintenance parts for generating units at Eskom easier, but also getting private power generation projects off the ground quicker.

He says red tape has made it difficult for Eskom to buy maintenance spares and equipment within the required period to do effect repairs. This point was raised station managers as they detailed how difficult has been for them to repair the units that breakdown. #EnergyActionPlan

— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) July 25, 2022

Eskom is also recruiting skilled personnel, including former plant engineers. Ramaphosa says he was touched by former plant managers that reached out, offering a helping hand.

Additional electricity will be bought from neighbouring Botswana and Zambia, who has a larger generation capacity than what they are currently using, as well as from the private sector, such as mines and shopping malls.

As part of addressing the shortage of MWs, Eskom will now also purchase additional energy from existing private generators such as mines, paper mills, shopping centers & other private entities that have surplus power, he says #EnergyActionPlan

— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) July 25, 2022

A special law enforcement task team has been set up to deal with criminal elements hindering repairs and draining much needed funds from the power utility through fraud and corruption.

He says the SAPS has set up a special law enforcement team to help Eskom in confronting rife crime and corruption and fraud. #EnergyActionPlan

— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) July 25, 2022

During his recent visit to Tutuka Power Station in Mpumalanga, the president said he was told of organised crime syndicates sitting behind large scale oil theft as well as deliberately damaging equipment to force Eskom to rent equipment from outside contractors.

To enable citizens and business with surplus power to sell it back to Eskom, it will develop rules and a standard feed-in-tariff to feed power back into the network.

Future plans are to establish a more competitive electricity market by allowing more generators (private and state owned) to compete, although the grid will remain state owned.

“Eskom is too big to fail. It is a national asset,” said Ramaphosa. He called on business, labour unions and the general society to join the effort to stabilise the power grid, making South Africa a more desirable investment location and in the end, creating more jobs.

He says he is convinced that if we work together, and if we hold each other to account. If we meet our timeframes and our deadlines and fulfill our commitments, we will be able to end this energy crisis that we are going through and create the conditions for growth of our economy

— @SAgovnews (@SAgovnews) July 25, 2022

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