The Mozambican government wants to know why there has been no movement from Eskom on the 100MW of electricity that the country agreed to give South Africa to help alleviate load-shedding, according to News24.
Mozambican energy minister Carlos Zacarias wants to know why Eskom did not finalise the acquisition of the 100MW of electricity his country committed to three months ago, when South Africa was in Stage 6 load-shedding.
At the time, the government signed an agreement that would see South Africa urgently procure power from Mozambique to halt rolling blackouts.
The agreement was reached between Minister in the Presidency for Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, and Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa in May and June.
Mozambican national utility company, Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), has tried unsuccessfully to meet with Eskom on the matter.
An Eskom spokesperson said: ‘We are importing an additional 180MWs from Cahora Bassa as compared to last year. Additional opportunities for green fields projects will be pursued from November subject to board approval of a procurement programme, which has been finalised following Nersa’s (National Energy Regulator of SA) approval in July’.
Two government insiders said this didn’t include the 100MW of power from Mozambique.
The electricity offered is from a powership, and as per the agreement, if Eskom took the 100MW immediately, ‘they would have given us 600MW in November and a further 300MW in the first quarter of next year’, according to one insider.
South Africa’s agreement with Mozambique would have immediately lifted one stage of load-shedding.
A second source added that if Eskom were to take all the power offered by Mozambique by next year, South Africa would be able to prevent Stage 4 load-shedding.
[Image: Karadenizsosyal, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71103151]