As South Africans continue to feel the frustration of load shedding, Eskom appears to be keeping its fingers crossed for the return of unit 2 at Koeberg power station in hopes that this will help ease the intense pressure on the national grid.
As the country continues to suffer under the implications of a severely strained power grid nearly two weeks on, residents and businesses have been warned to brace themselves for another week of load shedding.
While adding power from Koeberg may bring some sort of relief, the unit may only be at full capacity in the next two weeks, as per EWN.
The unit has been offline since January 2022 due to an extensive maintenance plan with a refurbishment cost of approximately R1 billion. However, it still remains Eskom’s best option right now when attempting to get sufficient electricity to households.
According to CEO Andre de Ruyter, plans to bring the unit back online will only be finalised at the end of the month with an additional 920 megawatts of capacity added to the grid.
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town has suggested a 10-point plan to rescue South Africa from daily load shedding.
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis released a statement in which he urged President Ramaphosa to announce a series of “decisive steps to bring this emergency to an end”. He describes the current power situation in South Africa as a “fully-fledged socio-economic crisis” that can only end if “strong and clear leadership” shows they have a plan of action.
One of the points includes implementing an income tax write-off for capital investment into small-scale generation and battery-storage projects. View the full list here.
Also read:
Uber’s alleged exploitation and endangerment of South African drivers exposed in leak
Picture: Unsplash