Cape Town - Another plan to end load shedding is in the pipeline, with Eskom saying the government was giving “serious consideration” to its inputs on how to tackle the power cuts which have had devastating impact on the country’s ailing economy.
“We have also consulted with a number of stakeholders and energy experts both locally and internationally. Those inputs have also been communicated with the government to deal with a number of areas we believe could accelerate the relief of generation capacity,” said under-fire chief executive Andre de Ruyter.
He also said that they were in close discussions with Daniel Mminele working in the presidency on the response to the COP26 funding.
“At this stage I am not at liberty to disclose the amount or timing, this is still subject to negotiations and we won’t want to compromise. Our initial focus includes transmission projects in order to increase grid accesses. The spirit of cooperation is very much alive,” he said.
In his weekly newsletter, President Cyril Ramaphosa said several important actions to address the shortfall in electricity supply have been taken.
“Our immediate priority is to stabilise the electricity system. As the system recovers and generation capacity is restored, Eskom will be able to reduce load shedding to lower stages. Over the past two weeks, we have been working with the relevant Ministers and senior officials on a range of additional measures to accelerate all efforts to increase our electricity supply. The message is clear, this is no time for business as usual. We need to act boldly to make load shedding a thing of the past.”
He said they will soon be completing the detailed work and consultations needed to finalise further measures.
“We will then, in the coming days, be able to announce a comprehensive set of actions to achieve much faster progress in tackling load shedding.
“There are no easy solutions to our electricity crisis. But we are committed and determined to explore every avenue and use every opportunity to ensure that we generate enough electricity to meet the country’s needs,” said Ramaphosa.
The country continues to be plagued by rolling blackouts with last week seeing stage 6 load shedding being implemented.
Meanwhile Eskom suffered another blow with the resignation of Riedewaan Barkadien, one of its seasoned leaders at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
After 27 years in the service Barkadien, the Chief Nuclear Officer has resigned and will take up a job at a Canadian nuclear utility in an executive position.
The resignation will be effective from July 31.
Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s (OUTA) Legal Project Manager, Brendan Slade said:“ Unfortunately, the resignation will result in Eskom losing even more skills. Under current circumstances, an exodus of much needed skills could not have come at a worse time. However, we have observed that Eskom is turning its ship around and will go into high gear to fill the skills deficit, even if that means bringing previous Eskom employees back.”
Cape Times