Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter says power cuts should start easing within the next 10 days when big generation units are expected to come back online.
The state utility ramped up load-shedding to 4,000MW at 6pm on Tuesday until further notice due to generation trips at its Kendal and Lethabo plants, and has imposed a record 120 days of blackouts so far in 2022.
“We are doing everything possible to add megawatts to the grid,” De Ruyter told Radio Sonder Grense. “We have started buying power from Zambia, and we are looking at Mozambique and the private sector to add megawatts.”
The private sector has a total of 6,000MW of new renewable projects in the pipeline, he said. Those projects were targeted after President Cyril Ramaphosa said in July that companies would be allowed to build power plants of any size without a licence to meet their own needs and to sell it to the grid.
De Ruyter said it would probably take another 18-24 months for that capacity to come onto the network.
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