Eskom has refuted reports claiming that the country will soon experience a blackout or collapse of the national electricity grid.
EFF leader Julius Malema told the media during a press conference this week that a grid collapse is imminent.
Malema claimed: “We are almost at a point of grid collapse. They are just calling it Stage 10 for nice words, the reality is that it is darkness.”
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CIC @Julius_S_Malema addressing the #EFFPresser
-We are almost at a point of grid collapse. They are just calling it Stage 10 for nice words, the reality is that it is darkness.#EFFTurns10 pic.twitter.com/f755LMtSJp
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) May 15, 2023
But at the Enlit Africa conference currently underway in Cape Town, interim Eskom group chief executive Calib Cassim reiterated that there are several controls in place that will prevent a grid collapse, and that he doesn’t lose sleep over the issue.
#EnlitAfrica2023 Eskom’s acting group chief executive, Calib Cassim said he is not “losing sleep” around a grid collapse and is confident the country will not experience a total electricity blackout. Video credit: EWN #Eskom #LoadShedding #Blackout pic.twitter.com/1E2XmUxehm
— 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 (@FaizelPatel143) May 17, 2023
Eskom says loadshedding is one of these mechanisms, and the risk of a national blackout has an extremely low likelihood.
The grid is by no means at a higher or imminent risk of a collapse and it would take an
unforeseen and sudden sequence of events that results in a cascading collapse of the
transmission or generation system, leading to a complete loss of supply across the country.
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Cassim has expressed confidence in the staff at the System Operator who have the competence to manage the tight system for the past three years.
Eskom says it continues to drive generation recovery initiatives which are aimed at ”preventing the current performance from deteriorating in the short-term, and improving the overall performance of the generation fleet in the long-term.”
A State of System media briefing is scheduled this Thursday to give an update of the power system and share the outlook for winter including contingency plans to avoid higher stages of loadshedding.
Drive to procure energy
Meanwhile, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, on Tuesday told Parliament that government will open a bid in July to procure additional renewable energy.
Mantashe, who was delivering his Budget Vote speech for the 2023/24 financial year, said Bid Windows 7 and 8 will each give 5 000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy.
In addition, he said the second and fourth quarters will see further requests for proposals for the procurement of battery storage with a capacity totalling 1 230MW.
A request for proposals for the procurement of gas-to-power, totalling 3 000MW, will also be issued in the second quarter.
A bid for proposals for the procurement of 2 500MW of nuclear energy will be open in the fourth quarter.
