To meet demand, the electricity grid needs enough generating capacity.
According to The Citizen, South Africans will endure load shedding for 12–18 months.
Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer painted a bleak picture at Thursday’s Agri-SA congress in Pretoria.
Oberholzer said South Africa’s deliberate power cuts would continue until enough generating capacity is added to meet demand.
Load shedding is likely to continue. “Until we have the extra capacity to satisfy the country’s demand while respecting the plant and maintaining it, we will face difficult situations.”
Oberholzer wouldn’t say whenever the power outages would end.
I don’t want to commit to a time. However, my gut. “Another year, a year and a half to just get out of this.”
Oberholzer’s views are predictable.
In one of his weekly newsletters earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that power cuts were here to stay, adding that “real progress is being made.”
Given Eskom’s fleet of coal-fired power stations’ unpredictable performance, we cannot eradicate power cuts in the short term.
