Eskom chairman, Mpho Mokwana has announced permanent loadshedding beginning in the next two years. Suggesting that it is here to stay forever & ever.
During a call with the media on Sunday, Makwana issued a stern warning that South Africans should brace themselves for intermittent stage 2 to stage 3 power failure (loadshedding) over the next two years, MyBroadband reports.
Makwana stated that the team’s goal is to “create some predictability.” Moving quickly from one stage to the next is almost never a good idea.
In spite of this, the outgoing CEO of Eskom, André de Ruyter, stated at a later time that it would not be possible to continuously implement a particular stage of load-shedding.
It is possible that higher stages will be required at times, and if the situation with Eskom’s generating unit breakdowns improves, it may be possible to use lower stages.
Later on, Thomas Conradie, the general manager of the power station for the state-owned power utility, stated that they hoped to reduce the level of daytime load-shedding to stage 1 within the next week.
According to Makwana, load-shedding will be implemented permanently as part of Eskom’s plan to increase its Energy Availability Factor (EAF) to the point where it will be able to stop doing so within the next 24 months.
READ MORE: Eskom’s loadshedding CEO André de Ruyter resigns
“The overall average for EAF across the world is approximately 86%. In the next two years, we want to increase our equity in the company from its current level of 58% to 70%,” said Makwana.
