Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has dismissed reports that Eskom is burning more diesel, to keep the lights on in the country.
This as today marks 47 days since the county experienced loadshedding.
Ramokgopa’s comments come after Eskom’s former CEO André de Ruyter, claimed that the utility has been burning diesel excessively in the run-up to the elections.
Briefing the media in Pretoria on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan, Ramokgopa dismissed the claims.
“There is little reliance on the open cycle gas turbine.
There could be nothing further from the truth.
This is anchored by these machines that are at Kusile and many other power stations,” said Ramokgopa.
The Minister highlighted that between May 5 to 11, Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCTG’s) were in use for just four days, with just over R53 million spent on diesel on those four days.
According to Ramokgopa, R23.5 million was spent on diesel to power the OCTGs on Monday, R11.9 million was spent on Tuesday and Wednesday, and R6.4 million was spent on Thursday.
The Minister also applauded Eskom, as it achieved an Energy Availability Factor (EAF) of some 70.78%, a feat last achieved nearly three years ago.
“As I stand before you today, the Energy Availability Factor of Eskom has breached the 70% mark.
That’s significant and the last time we achieved this was in August 2021.
The month-to-date statistics suggest that we are at 64.34% and the year to date we are at 59.92%.
But we have breached the psychological mark of 70% as a result of this consistent performance,” explained Ramokgopa.
Despite the significant progress made in the past 47 days, Ramokgopa warned that more work must be done to resolve the energy challenge in its entirety.
“We need to ensure sure that we bring other power stations to the levels of best performers Kusile, Lethabo, Majuba and Medupi so that across the entire fleet, when you use station by station, we should be above 70%.
“Of course, we don’t congratulate a fish for swimming because it must swim but we know where we come from.
So, I want to say to the team, thank you for breaching the 70% EAF, but we know that there are power stations that require attention going into the future,” added Ramokgopa.
