Pravin Gordhan Eskom Load shedding

Photo: World Bank Photo Collection / Flickr

Pravin Gordhan blasts Eskom for “unacceptable” load shedding crisis

If Eskom could convert incompetency into energy, there’d be no such thing as load shedding. Alas, here we are, and Pravin Gordhan is fuming.

Pravin Gordhan Eskom Load shedding

Photo: World Bank Photo Collection / Flickr

One of our favourite quirks about the South African government is that they’ll also join you in moaning about poor service delivery. Our complaints about Eskom and load shedding are often met with responses along the lines of “yeah, tell us about it…” from government departments. Pravin Gordhan did exactly that on Sunday evening.

Pravin Gordhan reacts to Eskom crisis

The public enterprises office released a statement addressing the Eskom crisis, sticking the boot into the stricken utility. Gordhan told the public that his department would be stepping up their efforts to carry out “urgent maintenance” on the affected plants. He also slammed the implementation of Stage 4 load shedding as “unacceptable”:

“It is clear that greater urgency needs to be applied to acquire equipment necessary for urgent maintenance. We agree with South Africans that the continuation of frequent load shedding, and in particular stage four load shedding, is unacceptable and disruptive to our economy.”

“We have asked Eskom to work with municipalities that supply power to large industrial users and businesses to minimize the disruptive effects of load shedding for our economy.”

Pravin Gordhan

What has caused this round of load shedding?

The country is on its knees with regards to the electricity supply. For the remainder of Monday, Stage 4 load shedding will stay in place. It’s likely this will last right through to Wednesday, as a comedy of errors has besieged the SOE.

It seems a failure to prepare has hurt Eskom the most, as they are running short on the essentials needed to keep the grid online. During a meeting that lasted several hours on Sunday, executives at the power giant outlined the key issues that are causing these blackouts:

  • Problems will coal supply.
  • Questionable quality of coal provided.
  • Not enough water at the dams of the hydro-plants.
  • A loss of power from imported sources in Mozambique, due to Cyclone Idai.
  • A large number of tube failures and breakdowns at local coal-fired power stations.

Blame it on the cyclone

Just one of these problems on their own is enough to constitute a crisis. Several of them piled up at the same time puts us nearer “disaster” territory. In addition to this, many of South Africa’s power stations are between 35 – 50 years old. They are effectively past their sell-by date, and cannot operate at an optimal level.

Eskom has tried to shift the blame onto the extreme weather we’ve seen north of the border. However, attempts to frame Cyclone Idai as the sole reason for this misery have fallen flat. Only a fraction of our power supply is imported from Mozambique, and the adverse conditions cannot be held responsible for the drop to Stage 4.

Moving forward, Gordhan’s office assured the public that the task team charged with getting Eskom back on track will “intensify” their operations this week. According to the statement, the team will provide important information about plant unit failures and what urgent measures can be taken to ensure power stations operate at optimal levels.

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