Johannesburg - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has warned of tough times ahead with more power outages as Eskom battles power constraints.
Brown told Parliament on Thursday that the next two years would be difficult for the country and appealed for residents to exercise patience.
At the same time, Eskom has announced that power cuts are likely at the weekend.
“While the demand for electricity is expected to be met on Friday and Saturday, there is a very high risk of load-shedding at the weekend,” the power utility said.
“Eskom has targeted the weekend to conduct load-shedding, should the need arise, on purpose so as to limit the impact on the economy.”
The constrained power system was partially due to “urgent planned maintenance” at the Cahora Bassa transmission line which will mean some of its capacity is unavailable on Sunday.
The weekend will also be used to build up water reserves for the pumped storage schemes which use water to generate electricity and to conserve diesel supplies for the week ahead.
The power utility said its load-shedding schedules were available for its direct customers on its website. Customers could also contact their call centre for additional information. (0860037566)
Brown said the country was going through a tough period with unserviced power stations, low generation capacity and lack of skills in the energy sector.
The minister made her appeal in the National Assembly, during the debate on the crisis at Eskom.
The debate was called by the DA as the country continues to face power outages and ageing infrastructure at Eskom.
She said things would improve once the two power stations, Medupi and Kusile, come on stream.
“Given that a power station is not like a car, when it breaks down, it sometimes takes months to repair, which means that we have less power than we need for that period of time,” said Brown.
Brown said one of the factors that had delayed the completion of Medupi and Kusile was strikes.
She said South African was now three to four years behind schedule.
The country was facing a tough two years, she said.
“The bad news is that it is going to be very tough for about two years longer and patience will be needed on the part of all citizens,” said Brown.
“The good news is that people who know what they are talking about are saying that, if we take certain critical action, there is every reason to believe that, from 2018, things are going to be looking a lot brighter,” she said.
But opposition parties described the current situation at the power utility as a crisis.
DA MP Natasha Michael described Eskom as a company in crisis. She said the debate happened at the time Eskom announced a loss of R4.7 billion in profit; or 24 percent.
The results were released on Wednesday. She said there were many unanswered questions on Eskom.
It was not clear how long load-shedding would continue.
DA Parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said as far back as 1998, Eskom highlighted the impending power crisis, but the ANC government did nothing.
But ANC MP Dipuo Letsatsi said there was no crisis at Eskom.
Political Bureau