Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says his department is turning the corner on load shedding. Very soon power cuts will be a thing of the past.
Ramokgopa was speaking at a recent event in Sandton, he said the country is reaching a stage where power generation is beginning to keep up with demand, with load shedding coming down from Stage 6 to Stage 3 in the space of six weeks.
“I know when we get into summer conditions, then at the current rate, generation will far exceed demand,” Ramokgopa said in a news conference.
Due to interventions on system maintenance and availability and efforts from businesses and households, the worst-case scenario of peak winter demand of 34,000 megawatts (MW) has not materialised, he said.
The capacity available is plateauing around 29,000MW, giving enough room to bring the power cuts down to Stage 3, where 3,000MW are taken off the grid, leading to between two and four hours of daily power cuts, the minister added.
The minister said the country is nearing a stage where there will be no blackouts for 24 hours.
“I want to say to the South African people we are much, much closer to that date,” he said.
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