Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said at a media briefing on Sunday that significant progress has been made regarding electricity generation.
Kusile unit 3 returned to service ahead of schedule, with Ramokgopa saying South Africa is “starting to turn the corner” in terms of electricity provision.
Due to the return to service of Kusile unit 3, the sustained improved generation performance and the lower-than-anticipated demand for electricity, load shedding will be suspended until 4pm on Monday, when stage-2 load shedding will be implemented.
On Kusile, Ramokgopa said: “It’s been almost a year that these units have not been operating. Essentially, the South African economy and the grid were losing about 2.4GW of generating capacity … and that contributed to a significant amount of strain that has been experienced on the grid
“I am really excited to say that we will be returning the other units, with 2.4GW,” Ramokgopa said. This is eventually expected to be bumped up to 3.2GW when unit 5 is brought back on stream.
Ramokgopa said he is confident about the work that is being done.