Ramokgopa predicts a load shedding free winter
CAPE TOWN - Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is predicting a load shedding free winter.
He expects the country's power plants to perform at the same capacity they did last winter, saying there's no reason for performance to regress.
READ: Nuclear energy to play key role in lessening SA's carbon footprint: Ramokgopa
Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday, Ramokgopa did not want to give too much away, saying he plans to provide a detailed winter outlook next week.
"When we went into winter last year, we didn't have Kusile Unit 6, so we didn't have that 800 MW. The second one is that we didn't have Medupi 4. We will have Medupi 4 by the end of May, which has been out for about four years, so it's another 800mw. And then we are going to have the benefits of both Koeberg units. We are anticipating that Koeberg Unit Number 1 is going to come back around in July or so."
Ramokgopa says that at the winter peak, the country will have an additional 2500mw of electricity it didn't have last winter.
While the energy availability factor was not at optimal levels last month [April], Ramokgopa says the problems have been isolated.
"One of the reasons we found is post-outage failure, so you take the unit out on planned maintenance, when it comes back, it still has a significant number of challenges. So that's something the team led by the executive Mr Bheki Nxumalo is addressing. So I really don't foresee that we are going to perform below what we did last year."
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