South Africa is “starting to turn the corner” in improving the security of its electricity supply
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Sunday.
Eskom suspended load shedding after Kusile Unit 3 returned to service and the power utility experienced a lower than anticipated demand for electricity on Sunday.
Kusile is contributing to the sustained improvement in generation performance which allowed Eskom to suspend load shedding until 4pm on Monday, when Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented, the power utility said.
Ramokgopa said at a media briefing on Sunday that Kusile Unit 3 had returned to service ahead of schedule and that the country had made “significant progress” regarding generation and was now "starting to turn the corner" in terms of electricity provision.
The three units at the Kusile plant were discontinued in October 2022 for maintenance purposes. This strained the national grid and affected Eskom's generating capacity.
Ramokgopa said the units had been shutdown to confront safety concerns.
“It’s been almost a year that these units have not been operating. Essentially, the South African economy and the grid were losing about 2 400 megawatts of generating capacity… and that contributed to a significant amount of strain that has been experienced on the grid,” Ramokgopa said.
Ramokgopa said Kusile Unit 3 now currently generates 550MW, and that it will take a considerable amount of time to restore normality, with the other units expected to return on-stream in due course.
“I am really excited to say that we will be returning the other units, with 2 400 megawatts,” Ramokgopa said.
This is expected to be raised to 3 200MW when Unit 5 is brought back on-stream. – SAnews.gov.za
