Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
Newly-appointed Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has downplayed the significance of unbundling Eskom to end load-shedding.
He said in a recent interview that unbundling the power utility was not his priority for now, and that it was important only in the long term for purposes of achieving energy security.
“In the short term, no. I am not suggesting that it’s unimportant. But in the context of reducing load-shedding is to address the plant deficit, the energy availability factor and for you to fix the energy availability factor, you don’t necessarily need as a requirement that Eskom must be unbundled into an autonomous institution with independent boards.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the plan to separate Eskom into three entities — generation, transmission and distribution — in 2019, saying this would have been executed by December 2022. Eskom remains a single entity.
Ramokgopa said that in the short term, he was focusing on fixing Eskom’s generating fleet and increasing the energy availability factor.
“That’s all that we need to do. Of course, I’m trivialising what’s going to be a very complex technical process,” he said.
“Let’s up the energy availability factor and, of course, you need to strengthen the grid ridge so that you are able to evacuate the new generation facility. But the issue that I’m raising is that let’s not conflate issues, because if we get to be too immersed in the unbundling process, then you’re likely going to neglect the most critical success factor in the resolution of load-shedding.
“We fix the 81 units of Eskom and get those out of service back into operation, and those that are underperforming close to 70%. That’s our primary focus and I was saying to the team we must have a laser focus, we must be deliberate.”
Ramaphosa recently appointed Ramokgopa with a mandate to reduce the severity and frequency of load-shedding as a matter of urgency. Just weeks after the appointment, Eskom announced that there were gradual improvements in power generation.
It said six of its coal-fired power stations had achieved an energy availability factor of 70%, something last attained in May 2022. The utility said three of these power stations, Camden, Duvha and Matla, had been on a sustained upward trend as a result of a reduction in plant breakdowns and the return to service of a number of units that had broken down.
“Lethabo, Matimba and Medupi have been experiencing continued good performance and remain among Eskom’s three best performing stations. In addition, Lethabo was able to sustain performance after a quick recovery following a wet coal incident experienced last week, due to flooding after excessive rainfall,” it said.
Ramokgopa’s comments align with those of the ANC’s economic transformation committee deputy chair Zuko Godlimpi, who said the unbundling of Eskom was not the main focus of the governing party.
“We’ve also asked the government to prioritise stabilising the grid. That is our singular, most urgent thing to be done.We are not in a position to answer to timelines concerning business modelling,” Godlimpi said.
“The most urgent one, tackling the Eskom debt, which now the minister of finance has outlined a plan on how to do that at the figure of about R256 billion that the national fiscal year is going to take from the Eskom balance sheet. And we would want everyone to be a hands on deck on just trying to deal with that. Even if it means they must defer their timelines on the other issues.”
Ramokgopa said the government would only invoke the provisions of the Disaster Management Act in relation to Eskom if existing solutions failed.
Ramaphosa announced a state of national disaster in February in response to the unrelenting energy crisis while also announcing he would appoint a dedicated electricity minister within the presidency.
He said the state of disaster would enable the government to pursue practical measures needed to support businesses in the food production, storage and retail supply chain, including the rollout of generators, solar panels and uninterrupted power supply gadgets.
The need for a state of disaster has been questioned, including by government advisers, but Ramaphosa said it was necessary for the “strong central coordination and decisive action” needed to stem the energy crisis.
“We don’t start by invoking the provisions of the Disaster Management Act,” Ramokgopa said. “We start by exploring what is possible within the existing framework, if that which is present does not allow us to act with speed then let’s invoke.”