President Cyril Ramaphosa has indicated that there is no intention of overhauling the Energy Action Plan he unveiled in July last year, even while acknowledging that “many of the measures in the plan will not be felt in the immediate term” and that loadshedding will, thus, continue.

Writing in his weekly newsletter following a week of consultative meetings on the electricity crisis with various social partners and the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM), which he chairs, the President said he had used the meetings to underline “the importance of staying the course, instead of coming up with unsustainable short-term solutions”.

“Six months ago I announced a national Energy Action Plan to improve the performance of Eskom’s power stations and add new generation capacity as quickly as possible.

“This plan was the result of extensive consultation and was endorsed by energy experts as the most realistic path towards ending loadshedding,” the President writes.

Many of the measures, would not be felt in the immediate term, however.

“We must be realistic about our challenges and about what it is going to take to fix them. While we all desperately want to, we cannot end loadshedding overnight.” 

He made no reference in the newsletter to his reported request to Eskom to halt the implementation of the 18.65% tariff increase, which was recently sanctioned by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

Such an intervention, while popular, would further weaken Eskom’s financial ability to respond to the crisis, including to implement the Energy Action Plan’s goal of recovering the performance of the under-maintained coal fleet, as well as to beef up security around Eskom’s assets, which have become hotbeds of corruption and crime, including sabotage.

Speaking on Radio 702, Eskom chairperson Mpho Makwana denied the President had requested Eskom to halt the hike, but had rather requested the utility to assess ways to “absorb the impact of the 18.65%”.

"We have indicated that we have a number of brilliant minds on our board that will look at all means possible to ease the pain. We are sympathetic to South Africans," Makwana said, adding that it would report back to NECOM on possible mechanisms to limit the impact of the tariff increase.

Should the increase, which is due for implementation on April 1, be moderated, it is possible that Eskom may need to approach the National Treasury for support over-and-above the regular injections already being received to sustain the State-owned company as a going concern.

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has already rebuffed the utility’s attempt to secure money to purchase additional diesel, but is expected to announce details of a debt-relief package in his February Budget.

Godongwana indicated in October that between one-third and two-thirds of Eskom’s near R400-billion debt could be transferred from Eskom to the National Treasury.

In his newsletter, meanwhile, Ramaphosa says he is aware that “everyone is fed up” with loadshedding, but insists that, by implementing the Energy Action Plan, loadshedding will steadily become less severe.

“That is why we are using every means at our disposal, calling on every resource we have, to get power onto the grid as a matter of extreme urgency.”

There is a big focus, he indicates, on improving plant performance, particularly at the six underperforming power stations of Kendal, Matla, Majuba, Duvha, Tutuka and Kusile.

The day before the newsletter was published, Eskom released details of a board- and shareholder-approved generation recovery plan to deliver more than 6 000 MW of Eskom generation over the coming two years.

The maintenance-led initiative aims to recover Eskom’s energy availability factor (EAF) from an average for the current financial year of 58% to a nominal 60% by the end of March. The goal is then to progressively increase the average EAF to 65% by the end of March 2024 and to 70% by the end of March 2025.

Engineering consultant WSP Africa have been appointed to monitor and report on the implementation of what Eskom describes as a “complex project management exercise”.

Ramaphosa reported that Eskom was importing 300 MW from neighbouring countries, while negotiations were under way to secure an additional 1 000 MW.

The utility is also working to buy surplus power from companies with available generation capacity for a period of three years.

“Government has signed agreements for 25 projects from bid windows 5 and 6 of the renewable energy programme, and these projects will soon be proceeding to construction. Collectively they represent 2 800 MW of new capacity.”

The President also highlighted steps taken to enable investment by private power producers in new generation capacity, including the removal of a licensing requirement for embedded generation projects of any size, which had reportedly unlocked a project pipeline of more than 100 projects with over 9 000 MW of capacity.

“Another major source of new generating capacity are solar panels on the roofs of houses and businesses.

“Work will soon be completed on a pricing structure that will allow customers to sell surplus electricity from rooftop solar panels into the grid.”