Western Cape seeks collaboration with Minister, Eskom to address energy crisis

Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde has again expressed his willingness to work with Electricity Minister, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Eskom and other stakeholders to tackle the energy crisis.

Ramokgopa is attending a meeting of the Western Cape Energy Council in Cape Town – a council chaired by Winde.

“A big area of concern for me and also for the Minister is obviously Koeberg Power Plant. Getting both units back up and running, licensed and in a position to play its part in the energy mix in SA and of course in the Western Cape. So, we’ve agreed to continuously monitor Koeberg’s refurbishment, make sure we play catch-up because we’ve gotta (we have to) make sure we get ahead of the game,” explains Winde.

The national government’s Energy Action Plan aimed to address rolling blackouts tops the agenda of the meeting.

Funding for power grid 

During a media briefing last week, Ramokgopa said Eskom is in need of excessive funding in order to expand the power grid. He added that government is focused on addressing Eskom’s financial crisis.

“The Eskom balance sheet is not in the position to finance the kind of expansion that is required in both the scale and the speed at which we need to respond to the needs. The Eskom balance sheet will not be enough to support that and of course we need to think creatively around how is it that we will be doing to address that.”

VIDEO | Ramokgopa updates on the progress of the Energy Action Plan: 

[embedded content]