Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has applauded Eskom for managing to sustain nine months without load shedding.
The blackouts were last implemented in the country in March this year and is the longest period without load shedding in the last five years.
This, according to Electricity and Energy Minister, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who briefed the media regarding the Energy Action Plan in Pretoria on Monday.
“We are recording another milestone in that we are experiencing the longest stretch of uninterrupted power supply in five years.
It is an important milestone.
We are not celebrating the fact that we have not had load shedding for 272 days.
We’re simply marking the point that in terms of our quest to end load shedding, it’s important that we can take account of these small milestones,” said Ramokgopa.
The minister said the achievement will contribute to a giant leap that they want to achieve, “to ensure that we have sufficient capacity that will support the growth of the South African economy.”
According to Ramokgopa, the power utility has managed to reduce its unplanned outages by some 8% compared to last year, which resulted in the improvement of the generation performance of its power stations.
Eskom also recorded year-on-year diesel saving costs of at least R16.6 billion.
“We’ve spent R16.06 billion less than what was spent in the similar period last year.
But just the beginning of December until the 19th, we’ve seen an increased use of diesel at Matla and some of the units that are delaying to comeback,” explained Ramokgopa.
The Minister acknowledged the ongoing hard work by Eskom employees to turn around the fortunes of the power utility.
Ramokgopa also applauded Eskom’s generation team.
“I think it is important at this point just to applaud the work that the generation team has been able to execute at Eskom.
Remember that we started from an exceptionally low base.
In the financial year 2024, we have seen the highest intensity of load shedding, in terms of the number of days and the number of hours that the country was subjected to periods of no electricity,” said Ramokgopa.
Moreover, the minister said the power utility is now back on track to achieve a surplus of about R10 billion by the end of the financial year.
