Energy Expert and Sinan Energy CEO Mohamed Madhi has commended Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and his team for being able to reduce load shedding.
South Africa today marked 13 consecutive days without load shedding.
During a media briefing earlier today, Ramokgopa said the energy grid is gradually stabilising with at least 2500 megawatts of new generation capacity expected in the coming five months.
Madhi says load shedding will end once we’ve added another 10 000 to 13 000 Megawatts of power onto the grid.
“We haven’t had this kind of period of uninterrupted power supply for many, many months. So, we have to applaud that, I think it has been good work. I also think some initiatives that the minister was able to get cooperation around are commendable. So, however, we have to note that we are far from the end of load shedding. And even if we were at the edge of load shedding, the important thing to realize is that assuming we ended load shedding, it would just be standing still.”
Meanwhile, Minerals Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says only the best bidders will be considered to build the 2500 megawatts of nuclear generation capacity.
The comments by Mantashe come as the department has gazetted its plan to procure new nuclear generation capacity to help ease the burden of load shedding.
“You see we have issued the Section 34 Ministerial determination. The next step is to issue the request for proposal. The request of proposal is a formula to test the appetite of the market. When we do that, people are going to bid and we select the best meeting our conditions.”
