Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has denied that the grid was about to collapse and cause a total blackout.
Ramaokgopa said there were reserved margins that are meant to protect the grid and these would not be used at any time.
Even if President Cyril Ramaphosa asked for the reserved margins to be used to reduce stages of load shedding the system operator would not take that instruction because his job was to protect the national grid.
Ramokgopa, who was making his maiden appearance in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday to answer oral questions with ministers in the economics cluster, said despite speculation about the imminent collapse of the grid, that was not correct.
He said the system was designed in such a way that there were safeguards in place.
Eskom was also running Open Cycle Gas Turbines to ensure the constant supply of electricity.
Ramokgopa said it was highly unlikely the grid would collapse.
“We have a philosophy in terms of you running this plan. There is what you call the reserve margin. It’s about 2 200MW that is kept at any given time by the system operator. The intention of that 2 200MW, even now we are in stage 6 he could engage that 2 200MW we will go to stage 4. But he will never do it. He will never do it because the intention is to protect the grid and we know what the cost associated with the total blackout.
“I want to say to you and the country we are highly unlikely to have a grid collapse because of that 2 200MW reserved margin. That person will never take any instruction from the Minister of Electricity, Minister of Public Enterprises or even from the President of this country because the interest is to protect the grid,” said Ramokgopa.
He said the issue of protecting the grid was important for the government.
It was in this context that this plan is in place to ensure that there is no total blackout.
Ramokgopa said in the context of the crisis of energy all efforts were made to ensure the economy survived by keeping the lights on.
They did not think the country had reached a stage where there would be a grid collapse.
The government was also implementing the energy action plan that would improve the supply of electricity.
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