Govt to work on 18 month plan to get Eskom out of electricity crisis

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has given 18 months as the time frame in which government plans to get Eskom out of its electricity generation crisis.

Eskom is currently implementing stage two rolling blackouts during the day and stage three at night.

Speaking in Parliament during a mini-plenary session on Thursday, Gordhan said: “Our plan is that within the next eighteen months or so-we must get out of this crisis. That is very clear. The President on the 25th of July said it very clearly that there is a five-part plan that he has instructed all of us to work towards.”

Firstly, we want to improve the performance of Eskom’s existing fleet. As addressed already, I have indicated that the board, the new board of Eskom has announced to look at this matter. And there is absolutely no doubt that something needs to change on the generation side of Eskom.”

Government has secured about 50 million litres of diesel from PetroSA for Eskom. The power utility admitted that it had spent all of its budget meant to buy diesel for the current financial year ending March 2023.

It warned it won’t be able to run turbines that have a capacity of about 2 000 megawatts. 

PetroSA to assist Eskom with diesel

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Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa says he’s optimistic that there will be more investment in the energy sector to address the crisis at Eskom.

The power utility has intensified rolling blackouts which are currently at stage three in the evening and stage two during the day.

Ramaphosa briefed the media yesterday on the outcomes of his two-day visit to the United Kingdom.

“We had an opportunity to discuss with companies that are already invested in the energy sector in SA and others that want to come in and invest. There’s a company that wants to invest almost 13 billion pounds into renewable energy constructions in SA and they have already started. So we are going to see investments flowing from just this visit.”