There were 600 fewer hours of loadshedding between December and January, according to Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
Speaking about the energy plan’s implementation at a Monday media briefing in Pretoria, Ramokgopa stated that his ministry is working harder to ensure that there are no loadshedding phases or lower stages.
“From December 2023 to January 2024, we have reduced the hours of loadshedding by 600 hours. This is a milestone,” Ramakgopa said.
“Loadshedding in its totality is unacceptable. We are working to gradually reduce the intensity of loadshedding. We should not get accustomed to stage-six loadshedding or any stage of loadshedding.”
Kendal units returned to service
Two of the five generating units that were lost at Kendal power station last Wednesday have been put back into service, he continued.
According to the minister, Kendal power station’s unit 4 was returned to service on Friday, and unit 3 was returned to service on Sunday.
Unit 5 will be returned before the end of Monday, while the power station’s unit 2 will be returned to service later in the week. Unit 1 is still undergoing planned maintenance.
According to Ramopkgopa, Kendal is a noteworthy power plant because each of its five generating units has a capacity of 600 megawatts (MW).
Eskom lost 3 000 MW as a result of the five generating units going offline last Wednesday, necessitating the escalation of the loadshedding stages.
Following the loss of five generating units at Kendal power station and one at Duvha power station owing to mechanical problems, Eskom announced on Thursday that stage-four blackouts would replace stage-two power cuts.
“This was a setback. The lessons we learned from this will be exported to other power stations so that we do not suffer the same setback again,” he said.
New Eskom CEO starts work on Friday
Meanwhile, Ramokgopa confirmed that Dan Marokane will take over as the new CEO of Eskom on Friday.
The nation is presently experiencing stage-two loadshedding until 4pm, according to the state-owned power utility. Stage-three loadshedding will then be implemented until 5am on Tuesday.
This pattern will be repeated daily until further notice.
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said 4 170MW of generation capacity is expected to be returned to service by Wednesday.
