SA expected to emerge from rolling blackouts in the coming week: Eskom CEO

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter says South Africa is expected to emerge from rolling blackouts by the end of the coming week.

De Ruyter says the system is however still unreliable.

“Towards the end of the coming week, we should emerge from rolling blackouts. We’ve already lifted our indication for rolling blackouts going forward. We’ve got a couple of big units returning towards the end of July, the risk will be significantly diminished once Koeberg 2 comes back to the grid.

That will bring a large measure of relief, but ultimately to put rolling blackouts to bed. What we need is additional capacity, because the system as it is at the moment, is still unreliable and unpredictable,” says De Ruyter.

Video | President Cyril Ramaphosa on an oversight visit to Tutuka Power Station in Standerton
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On Saturday, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Tutuka Power Station in Mpumalanga as South Africa continues to endure rolling blackouts.

Eskom implemented the latest round of rolling blackouts more than three weeks ago.

Ramaphosa has vowed to continue pursuing economic reforms to secure a reliable supply of affordable electricity.

In his recent weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa acknowledged that the government needed to act boldly in addressing the country’s energy crisis.

He admitted that there were no easy solutions but said the government was committed to exploring several opportunities to ensure that enough electricity was generated to meet the country’s energy requirements.

VIDEO | Defend our Democracy’s call for government to urgently deal with the electricity crisis: Moss Ntlha

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