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Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the winter months ahead will prove to be difficult terrain due to the energy crisis as South Africans deal with yet another week of stage 6 load shedding.
“Load shedding represents a structural problem to the South African economy,” he said. “The outlook, in fact, is bleak. And the economy will barely grow just by the observations and projections of the SA Reserve Bank.”
One of the biggest contributors to increased load shedding is unreliable production units, which, when broken down, necessitate escalation in levels.
Given the high cost of repair alongside lengthy wait times, more immediate interventions are needed to ensure load shedding does not exceed stage 6.
READ: SA must prepare for long, cold and dark winter
The minister called on consumers to engage in demand-side energy reduction: a practice that calls on businesses and households to limit their own energy usage in an attempt to lessen pressure on the grid.
This comes after Eskom’s April proposal for a four-year, R16bn smart-meter rollout.
This isn’t the first time demand-side energy reduction has been thrown out to South Africans.
In 2008, the department of energy published a regulation requiring users with monthly consumption above 1 000 kWh to install smart meters and pay time-of-use tariffs before the start of 2012.
Some controversy surrounding the meters and their accuracy arose in 2015, when the then-DA City of Johannesburg caucus leader, Vasco Da Gama, questioned their validity and unreliable readings that led to heightened electricity bills for residents.
The office of the presidency’s project management office head, Rudi Dicks, agreed that demand-side regulation was necessary, referencing the abundance of megawatts saved up to 2015. Dicks added:
The minister referenced Eskom’s Distribution Demand Management Programme, introduced in April, which incentivises customers to save energy during periods with R3 million given per MW saved.
Financial stimuli are distributed through rebates, paid out eight times a year.
READ: As load shedding bites, public clinics feel the squeeze
Switching to green energy is still at the forefront of the ANC’s initiatives, as President Ramaphosa referenced in Thursday’s parliamentary meeting.
However, Dicks said the more immediate concern was not to look at specific technologies but rather emergency procurement strategies that were currently attainable.
He summarised that unit recovery and maintenance, streamlining of emergency power and demand-side regulation can – in combination – reduce load shedding. For Ramakgopa, a potential nation-wise doomsday is unlikely.
“I want to give assurance to the country… That it is highly, highly, highly unlikely that we’re going to get to a situation with a (total) blackout,” he said.
Still, he accepted the worries South Africans were sharing on load shedding by acknowledging the toll it had taken on breadwinners now out of work due to energy and financial constraints.
READ: Eskom seeks to lessen pressure on its system amid rolling blackouts
At the end of the day, Ramakgopa said keeping informed of developments on his side was of the utmost importance.
