Ramokgopa optimistic power grid will stabilise this week

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says South Africa is still navigating its energy challenges with losses in generating units continuing to pose challenges, but says there is cause for optimism. The minister was giving his weekly energy action plan update in Pretoria. He says they are optimistic in having the grid stabilise in the coming week.

This comes amid concerns over load shedding’s impact on matriculants who are writing their final exams.

Ramokgopa says plans are at an advanced stage to release the long-awaited Integrated Resource Plan at the end of November that he believes will mitigate load shedding and help safeguard the economy.

“Last week, suddenly, we lost about 11 of these units stationed at Kusile, Majuba, Thutuka, Dhuva, Matla. They really undermined that progression and as a result of that, we lost 17000 MW in total, and this time around, we know the sources and it’s the boiler tube links and at least we are not experiencing them like last week. And I am happy to say we are expecting the six additional units to come back by Thursday.”

Karpowership early exit option

South Africa will have an option for early exit in the gas-to-power project with the Turkish Karpowership, according to the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, Zeynep Harezi.

He has told SABC News that the government would have an early exit clause after five years or 10 years.

Karpowership SA was initially awarded a 20-year contract in three bids for a total capacity of 1200 megawatts in Coege, Richards Bay and Saldanha.

However, there has been strong resistance to the contract from environmental groups and opposition parties.

Kapowership was recently granted the environmental authorisation license for its Richards Bay Environmental impact assessment application by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment last month.

Harezi says both parties are happy with the exit clauses.

“During our discussions with IPP, we have been requested for early exit options and we have gladly accepted 5-year and 10-year early exit options,” says Harezi.

Karpowership gets green light:

[embedded content]