Eskom chairman Mpho Makwana said South Africans should celebrate stage 2 and stage 3 load-shedding instead of only lamenting stage 7 and stage 8 power cuts.
Makwana made these comments during an interview with Newzroom Africa’s Xoli Mngambi about South Africa’s load-shedding outlook.
The Eskom chairman said people should prepare for a tough winter regarding load-shedding, but would not give estimates on exactly what to expect.
‘We cannot give a “how bad” answer today because the week-to-week forecast for load-shedding is shifting as we improve’, he said.
‘It will take 18 months to 2 years to fix load-shedding. It is very clear that there is no shortcut.’
Improvement of the performance of the power plants and the addition of more generation capacity to the grid will be required.
Makwana said they want to get as close as possible to a 60% energy availability factor (EAF) by the end of March 2023, 65% by March 2024, and 70% by March 2025.
On the deteriorating performance of Eskom’s power stations, Makwana said the country must not be fixated on the negative aspects only.
‘In these periods, we must also celebrate the times we have had lower levels of load-shedding. There have been many of those when we have been on stage 3 and stage 2.
‘We must not just lament stage 8 and stage 7 load-shedding. There have been consequent days where we had stage 3 and stage 2.
‘If we want this thing to change, celebrate those things that Thomas Conradie are fixing. Then we encourage them to do more.’
[Photo: Lindsay Dentlinger/Eyewitness News]