Ramokgopa clears ‘confusion’ on hot weather and load shedding comments

Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says his statement that hot weather was one of the reasons affecting the performance of Eskom’s generating units and leading the country getting high stages of load shedding has been misconstrued. 

Ramokgopa, who appeared for an oral reply at the National Assembly, suggested his statement had been taken out of context. 

“Listening is a skill. What I said was when we get into warmer days, we are going to get an increased partial load loss. This simply means the generating units are not generating to their full capacity. 

“This has to do with the cooling powers, fans, and the direction they are facing, which undermines the ability of the unit to approximate their design life,” said Ramokgopa. 

He said government was working with experts from China to find out how best to reduce partial load losses. 

Last week, Ramokgopa said while the units were working they were not producing the required amount of megawatts due to their design capacity. 

He said the partial load losses were above 5,600MW.

“This is a function of a number of factors and we know when we enter the summer period, it could be a function of ambient temperature. The hotter it gets, [it becomes] very difficult for some of these units to perform. Partial load losses are likely to increase as we go into the more extreme hot periods of the year.”

Load shedding to end before elections

Ramokgopa made a U-turn on his previous statement that load shedding would be a thing of the past by the end of 2024, saying it would now end before the general elections. 

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“When we went into winter of this year, we didn’t have the benefits of three generation units at Kusile Power Station. We also didn’t have the benefits of one generation unit at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station,” he said. 

“So when you compute the energy availability factor, comparing year-on-year, it shows that we are on the ascending, and I know your grievances are primarily anchored on the fact that we are going to defeat and eliminate load shedding. It will not become a factor when we go into the elections.”

Kusile generating 800MW

Previously, he said Kusile Power Station resumed generating 800MW at unit 4.

Kusile’s unit 4 was out for a 20-day planned maintenance while units 1 and 3 were taken out by the collapse of the flue-gas desulphurisation unit last October.

“We are closer to resolving this problem because you need that additional generating capacity. There’s been a significant improvement in the energy availability factor over a period of time,” said Ramokgopa.

“Kusile sits on the critical path. We think we can allow the temporary intervention with the attendant mitigating measures, and we’re committing by the end of 2024, we will restore normality and ensure that we address the issues of load shedding.”

READ MORE: Stage 6 load shedding is a ‘short-term phase’, says Ntshavheni