Good News: Minister of Electricity welcomes return of Kusile Unit 1

With power continuing to be cause for concern, Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa shared some positive news today regarding Kusile power station on Monday, 16 October.

MINISTER OF ELECTRICITY SHEDS LIGHT ON KUSILE UNIT 1 RETURN

In a brief statement, the Ministry of Electricity welcomed the return to service of Kusile Unit 1, ahead of schedule.

“The return of unit 1 continues to strengthen the stability of generation performance and adds 800MW into the grid,” he said.

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MORE UNITS EXPECTED TO RETURN?

“The Unit, which had been out of commission since August 2022, following safety concerns with the structural integrity of the stack, returns ahead of its planned return date. The third of the three units is now expected to similarly return to service in November 2023, earlier than schedule, whilst unit 5 will come into commercial operation in December 2023,” Minister of Electricity explained.

ALSO READ: Minister of Electricity: “Eskom workers will resolve load shedding”

WHAT THE RETURN MEANS TO ESKOM AND ENDING LOAD SHEDDING

Eskom also weighed in on the latest developments.

“Eskom is pleased to announce that Kusile Power Station Unit 1 is now on load. The unit has been returned to service a month and a half ahead of the original schedule and brings an additional 800MW into the grid. This is after Kusile Unit 3 was returned to service on 30 September 2023 and has been consistently delivering 800 MW. Both units are adding 1 600MW back into the grid thereby improving the available generation capacity,” Eskom announced, adding that this signifies that Eskom is on the right path to reducing and ultimately ending load shedding.

• ALSO READ: Kusile Unit 3 returns to service, expected to improve capacity by 800 MW
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