Eskom CEO André de Ruyter at MegaWatt Park in Sunninghill, Sandton. Photo: Gallo Image/Freddy Mavunda/ Financial Mail
Eskom on Sunday announced it held a meeting with the CEOs and business leaders of South Africa’s top companies to find a solution to the country’s energy crisis.
The session, hosted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), happened on Friday.
The meeting, according to Eskom, included more than 70 business leaders.
“The purpose of the discussions was to identify initiatives where the parties can collaborate and plant the seeds of opportunity to leverage private sector investment capacity and harvest the low hanging fruit in the electricity industry,” said Eskom Group Chief Executive André de Ruyter.
De Ruyter reiterated his plan to secure South Africa’s electricity supply by reducing demand and increasing Eskom’s capacity.
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He wants the private sector to help him achieve this.
According to Eskom, companies can do this by focusing on four areas.
The first is for the private sector to invest in its own power generation projects and independent power producers (IPPs.
The second is for big companies to use of electricity sparingly.
The third is to help provide security to protect the electricity infrastructure from vandalism and theft.
The last area is to contribute to the development and alignment of policies to improve the energy and industrial sectors.
The meeting between Eskom and the private sector comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa last week said Eskom will add new generation capacity “on an urgent basis”.
He also called for citizens help end South Africa’s load shedding crisis.
“This in many ways is a call for all South Africans to be part of the solution to contribute in whatever way that we all can to end energy scarcity in South Africa,” he said.
Ramaphosa said his government’s new measures would improve Eskom’s existing fleet of power stations and increase private sector involvement in generating capacity, among other things.
He also said the measures would transform the electricity sector by allowing businesses and households to invest in solar panels.
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