Newly appointed Minister of Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientso Ramokgopa says the responsibility to resolve the energy crisis at Eskom rests with those at the power utility.
"For energy availability, two things must happen. The first one is to retain units that are out of operation. The second one is to ensure there is increased efficiency for units that are running. That intervention/responsibility sits with the people at Eskom. The point must be made that the people who are going to resolve an improvement in the efficiency or energy availability are the engineers at Eskom. They must be affirmed for that purpose and to the extent that they need any form of assistance," Ramokgopa said.
He was speaking during an interview on SABC on Thursday evening days after he was sworn into cabinet.
According to Ramokgopa, as the country moves into the colder months, there will be an increased demand in electricity usage.
“We also know that a scenario is going to play itself out going into winter and peak demand is going to be about 32 000 megawatts. So if you like, we must find 6000 megawatts to resolve this problem. These 6000 megawatts means we either increase generation capacity to get the 6000 megawatts or you reduce this demand because these are the people who are consuming industries, households, farms, hospitals and schools so you reduce their demand without undermining their ability to meet their daily needs. Without undermining commerce's ambition or objective of maximising profit."
He added: "That's why we are saying that we are going to focus on the 81 units at Eskom. We will do this by working with Minister Gordhan as the shareholder, the accounting authority (the board) and the executive authority as the CEO of the company (Eskom).
While President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously unveiled his Energy Action Plan in July last year, Ramokgopa said his office would also seize itself with the responsibility to map out an action plan for the country's power utility and all stakeholders involved.
"It is also to ensure that there is additional generation outside the Eskom fleet. What National Treasury has done with the fiscal relief to Eskom in relation to it says once we free up capacity for the additional investment we are going to repurpose the existing plant. That's when we now go to the renewable energy developers. On the demand side, there are opportunities around rooftop solar energy combined with battery storage and inverters. In a short way, that's how we are going to make those interventions. They appear to be simple but they will be complete once we enter that spacer," he said.
Ramokgopa meanwhile said the solution is to never evoke the Disaster Management Act whenever there is a problem adding "it should be the last resort."
IOL