All the light we cannot see — yet, at least

The severe load-shedding we have experienced in recent months has its roots in more than a decade of policy missteps, poor planning and mismanagement of our once world-class power utility. Similarly, the action we are taking now will have consequences in future, by restoring energy security and ending loadshedding once and for all.

Eskom recently announced that loadshedding is likely for the next six to 12 months as it embarks on major capital investment projects and repairs. For households and businesses that have been so badly affected by intermittent power supply, the prospect of more load-shedding is deeply disheartening. But there are reasons for hope.

In July this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced additional measures to improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations and add new generation capacity to the grid in the fastest possible time. Over the past three months, these measures have been overseen by a national energy crisis committee, which is co-ordinating a plan of action across the government. Rapid and tangible progress is being made in the implementation of these interventions.

Undertaking critical maintenance is key to improving the performance of power stations. Eskom has identified six — Duvha, Kendal, Kusile, Majuba, Matla and Tutuka — that contribute the most to breakdowns and is focusing its resources on them. The National Treasury and Eskom are meeting on a weekly basis to speed up the procurement of spare parts and to enable Eskom to appoint capable service providers without delay.

Eskom is also recruiting skilled personnel, including senior former plant managers and engineers from the private sector. To date 18 skilled specialists have been brought back to Eskom, including at the Kendal, Koeberg and Medupi power stations. These personnel will work closely with permanent Eskom teams and transfer their skills.

A special law enforcement team has been set up within the police to tackle sabotage, theft and corruption at Eskom. There are 67 cases in court, three of which have been finalised with convictions. Progress is being made through stronger collaboration with private security and the deployment of additional resources. A contractor at the Camden power station was recently arrested for alleged sabotage aimed at securing more maintenance jobs for his company, and additional arrests have been made at Camden and Port Rex for theft of diesel and coal.

The new board of Eskom has formed a committee focused on improving plant performance, and has the necessary engineering and other skills to support Eskom’s management in achieving this goal.

These and other measures will stabilise the performance of the fleet and lead to improved reliability over the coming months. Even as we focus on existing power stations, this administration has set in motion a process of reform that will add more capacity to the grid and enable multiple generators to provide electricity, not just Eskom.

Following the regulatory changes announced by the president last year, the pipeline of private embedded generation projects has grown to more than 100 with a total capacity of more than 9,000MW. Construction has already begun on several major projects and these will connect to the grid next year. The new capacity to be procured through bid window 6 of the renewable energy programme has increased to 4,200MW. Three projects from the emergency procurement round with a capacity of 540MW and six projects from bid window 5 totalling 784MW have signed agreements with the government to enable the start of construction.

An additional 300MW has been imported through the Southern African Power Pool, and negotiations are under way to secure a further 1,000MW from neighbouring countries starting next year.

Eskom has also launched a programme to purchase up to 1,000MW of power from companies with existing generation capacity for a period of three years, and another emergency generation programme to purchase 600MW of additional power when the grid is constrained.

Work is under way to develop much stronger incentives for rooftop solar, so that businesses and households can play a part in the solution. To ensure that these projects are not held back by red tape, authorisation processes have been streamlined. For example, the average time for grid connection has been reduced from nine months to six, land use authorisation for energy projects has been cut from 90 days to 30 and registration with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa now takes an average of 19 days compared with four months previously.

Together these measures will help to reduce the intensity and frequency of load-shedding, but this will not happen overnight. We have embarked on a path that will finally bring energy security for all South Africans. We must continue down this path with even greater speed and resolve.

We can and will emerge from this period of hardship if we work together as a country. It may not feel like it now, but actions we are taking will prove their worth in time to come.