Fresh from feeling the sting of stage 6 load shedding, electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says all is well, and Eskom has a plan for the coming winter.
Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, says that power utility Eskom will start winding down its planned maintenance schedule as the winter months approach.
Since then, however, Eskom has embarked on a massive planned maintenance regime, with planned outages outpacing levels seen over the last three years. This maintenance came at the cost of power availability, and saw load shedding return far earlier in 2024 than anticipated, and even contributed to the recent push to stage 6.
“From March of 2024, we will begin reducing planned maintenance from the current 6,000MW to 5,000MW in April 2024 and to around 3,500MW in May 2024 – a threshold that will be sustained during the winter demand period,” he said.