Electricity Minister To Visit 14 Power Stations; Praises Eskom Employees

Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who is all set to visit 14 power stations, started his tour with Kriel and Duvha power stations on Monday. The minister praised the Eskom employees for working towards solving the electricity crisis in the country.

Ramokgopa began his tour with a speech where he addressed the electricity crisis, noting that there are no quick solutions. However, the new electricity minister shared that there is now a "clear path" visible for him to end the load shedding across South Africa.

"Our task is to intensify work underway and make sure that any obstacles to progress are removed without delay," he continued, IOL reported. "The government has taken steps to improve the performance of Eskom's existing power stations so that the coal-fired power stations that provide 80% of our electricity produce the amount of electricity for which they were designed."

The 48-year-old minister further pointed out that these 14 power stations' visit commitments were made by President Cyril Ramaphosa and next, he will be visiting Kusile and Kendal power stations on Tuesday.

Ramokgopa also praised Eskom workers, saying that they are the biggest asset for the company, which is responsible for supplying electricity in South Africa.

"My view has always been the biggest asset for any organization is its workers and the reason we're starting from the bottom up is to appreciate and understand the efforts being made at the station level," Ramokgopa said during a media interaction at Duvha Power Station.

He also shared his commitment to visit each power station individually to examine the issues "that affect every unit and get from the station manager, organized labor and workers about what are the interventions, in their opinion, they think are appropriate to help scale up energy availability."

During the power station visit, Ramokgopa appreciated those workers who have "accumulated experience of 25 years" in these units.

He continued, "We're joined at the hip and it's them who are in the cold face of the day-to-day interaction of these units. But I'm the public face of how we're going to resolve load shedding."

The minister will continue to speak with workers at the power stations for the next seven days in order to understand the nature and scale of the problem, which will help him to update the Energy Action Plan (EAP).

After Tuesday's visit to Kusile and Kendal power stations, Ramokgopa will visit Tutuka and Camden on Wednesday before visiting the Lethabo power station on the same day. Considering Friday's visit, he will be at Ankerlig's open cycle gas turbine and Koeberg power station located in the Western Cape.

Talking about EAP, he said it was introduced by President Ramaphosa last year to resolve the energy crisis that continues to affect the nation. Ramokgopa, on the other hand, launched Resource Mobilisation Fund (RMF) earlier this month to ensure the proper implementation of EAP.