Ramaphosa: South African energy problem being urgently dealt with

 

President of South Africa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa. (Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

As South Africans were forced to deal with re-occurring power outages last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Monday that new generation capacity is being built to tackle power shortages.

“Resolving our energy challenges isn’t just urgent; it is fundamental to South Africa’s economic recovery,” he said.

Power utility Eskom said it was forced to resume rotational power cuts on March 10, as its generation capacity was severely constrained.

South Africans should brace themselves for more load-shedding over the next five years, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said recently, citing ageing power plants and plants which urgently required maintenance as some of the contributing factors.

Ramaphosa said the electricity shortage has been a problem and that economic activity has been severely interrupted whenever there is a power cut.

He said the government has selected several companies to supply 2,000 megawatts of emergency power to cover the shortfall.

“The power will be produced from a range of sources including solar, wind, liquified natural gas and battery storage. These projects will involve an investment of around 45 billion rand (3 billion U.S. dollars) by the private sector,” the president said, adding that all the projects should be providing power by August 2022.

He said the government released a request for proposals for the procurement of a further 2,600 megawatts of renewable energy last week and planned new power generation projects of more than 7,000 megawatts of electricity over the course of next year.

“These new sources of electricity are vital to ensure a reliable supply of energy into the future,” he said.