Minister of electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has commended Eskom over its recent efforts to bring the worse stages of load shedding under control.
This is as the power utility moved swiftly to dismiss reports of impending stage 16 load shedding.
The power utility said there was no imminent danger of South Africa plunging into stage 16 of load shedding, following recent National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved guidelines for implementing load shedding up to stage 16.
These guidelines were first reported in May last year, with Eskom indicating that South Africans may have to brace themselves for 16 stages of load shedding as part of new regulations by the National Rationalised Specifications (NRS).
It was reported that these regulations aligned with the NRS’s proposals put forward in March 2023 with the NRS saying it was finalising the regulations – NRS 048-9, Edition 3 – with energy regulator Nersa.
The newly released guidelines will allow Eskom to implement drastic load shedding beyond stage 8. But Eskom said it’s operation had been improving and assured that no drastic stages of load shedding were on the cards; with stage 6 being the highest stage of load shedding implemented to date.
Nersa, however, says provisions for any eventuality should be made ahead of time.
Stage 16 of load shedding would see 80% of power cuts implemented, with the switch-off time seeing consumers going up to 20 hours a day without electricity.
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena called for calm amidthe speculation on impending stage 16 load shedding, adding that it as nothing more than guidelines which form part of the latest revision of the Code of Practice.
“One noticeable modification over the three revisions has been the adoption and catering for higher stages of load shedding,” Mokwena said.
This has been confirmed by Welile Mkhize, HOD of licensing and compliance at NERSA, who said: “Addition 3 which is the current code of practice which NERSA has recently approved caters for up to level 16 or stage 16 of load shedding. This by no means says we are expecting or there is an imminent stage 16 but it’s simply a way of preparing the system operator in an eventuality that would require him to be able to operate they system under such conditions.
“Of course, you may be aware that the Eskom generation performance has not improved over the years so what one wants to do at this point in time, is to prepare for any eventuality but by no means say we are anticipating stage 16 any time soon,” said Mkhize.
The new guidelines allow Eskom and municipalities to mitigate the impact of higher load shedding stages and prevent grid collapse. It also empowers Eskom and electricity distributors to take emergency action if necessary.
Eskom says there’s no need to worry as the grid has stabilized over time, pouring cold water to concerns of looming heightened levels of load shedding to stage 16.
On Tuesday, during his weekly media briefing Ramokgopa commended the power utility for its efforts in dealing with load shedding following almost two weeks of no power cuts.
“These interventions come on the back of the Energy Action Plan... It is [like] an accumulation of these efforts over a period, which is now going close to two years,” the minister said.
Saturday Star