South Africa’s Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has warned South Africans that the winter season will be “exceptionally difficult” and should brace for heightened load shedding.
He was speaking in the east of Pretoria at the site of the collapsed electricity pylons.
South Africa is currently experiencing higher stages of load shedding, with the country’s power utility, ESKOM announcing on Wednesday that it will implement stage 6 power cuts from 4 PM.
Ramokgopa said power generation remains constrained adding ESKOM needed about 66 000 megawatts to bridge the gap between demand and supply. He said:
I’ll be brutally honest. It’s going to be an exceptionally difficult winter. We know that in summer conditions, the deficit is 6 000 megawatts.
When we go into winter, the peak can go up to 37 000 megawatts. But at the current rate of trips and failures, it’s going to be an exceptionally difficult winter.
… We are doing everything possible so that we don’t go beyond stage six. If there are any changes to that, we will communicate them.
Ramokgopa urged South African households and businesses to drastically reduce their electricity usage. He said:
The biggest problem that is confronting us is the unreliability of the generation units.
You can see that within the space of fewer than 48 hours, we move from no load shedding to stage five.
There’s a lot we can do to bring down demand without compromising our ability to meet our daily requirements as we go about life.
Early this month, Zimbabwe’s Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda, South Africa had reduced electricity supply to its northern neighbour as it grappled with its own challenges.
More: Pindula News