Kgosiansho Ramokgopa, Minister of Electricity; Photo courtesy: GCIS
RPower Minister Kgoshyensho Ramokgopa said renewable energy would not be the end to load reduction, but it could play a role in reducing it.
Mr Ramokgopa said at a media conference on Tuesday that power utility Eskom would utilize additional capacity generated from wind energy to reduce the impact of load shedding from May.
“When the cold front passes through the Western and Eastern Cape in winter, wind power production increases significantly, so the contribution of wind energy will be greater during this period,” he said.
The Western Cape and Eastern Cape have been earmarked for wind energy utilization as they are rich in wind energy resources.
But the minister said it was wrong to talk about renewable energy saving the country from load shedding, despite the abundance of wind power, and that increasing energy utilization from 52% to 60% would require coal-fired power and renewables. He said possible energy sources are important.
He added that renewable energy, although intermittent, contributes to the power grid during peak periods.
“During the summer, wind power almost perfectly matches the high evening peak demand and the low nighttime minimum demand. Wind energy is fulfilling its original function of contributing to Eskom,” he said.
The minister said that renewable energy, including solar and wind, contributes 5,440MW to the grid, and that renewables cannot provide the necessary respite, especially during night-time peak hours (between 6pm and 9pm). In that case, Eskom would have to rely on more expensive diesel, he added. energy.
The minister said Eskom expected R30 billion to be set aside for diesel procurement, although the winter plan was not yet complete. This is slightly more than the R27.9 billion diesel budget the utility received for the 2023/24 financial year.
Eskom has not carried out any load shedding for 13 days, the longest period without rolling blackouts this year. Ramokgopa attributed the reprieve to maintenance, saying half of the power outages in 2024 were due to load reductions in the first and second phases compared to last year's fourth and fifth phases. .
“So what is the message we're communicating here? It's that the intensity of offloading is decreasing, and that's the point I always make,” he said. Ta.
But government critics say the sudden easing of load shedding is a political move aimed at stopping the ruling ANC from losing votes in the May 29 general election.
In January, email and guardian Eskom reported that it had been ordered by the government to ease its burden relief in the run-up to the election to avoid “incitement to subversion”.
Ramokgopa said on Tuesday that more than 2,500 MW of new generation generators will be operational in the country within the next five months, adding that planned maintenance will help speed up the procurement of spare parts.
“We have placed great importance on strengthening planned maintenance. That is why I believe that if we look at the period from December 2023 to January 2024, 18% of the generation capacity, approximately 9000 MW, will be planned They argued that it would be used for maintenance,” the minister said.
“We're starting to see these machines coming back online. They're coming back under load and increasing capacity on the grid, which is helping to meet demand.”
Eskom is expected to announce its winter plans by the end of May.
