Almost overnight. Power cuts in South Africa have suddenly dropped from twelve to two hours a day for several weeks, surprising a population whose daily life has been undermined for months by the energy crisis.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was outspoken before the cold weather hit the southern African country: “I’ll be brutally honest, the winter will be incredibly tough. That was counting without the El Nino weather phenomenon. According to energy experts, electricity demand since the start of the southern winter in June has been lower than feared due to abnormally high temperatures for the period.
An increase in tariffs has also pushed companies to consume reasonably, according to specialist Tshepo Kgadima. “Even at the height of winter, the demand at peak consumption is around 30,000 megawatts, instead of the 37,000 megawatts planned” by the government, he explains to AFP. Experts even predict a drop to 25,000 MW in the near future, as the energy crisis had only worsened since last year. The public electricity company, Eskom, unable to produce enough, had in recent months imposed record cuts.
Production up
The Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC, the ruling party), Fikile Mbalula, on Wednesday hailed a “turnaround”, assuring that the “turnaround” of Eskom will save the country “from devastating socio-economic effects linked to the energy shortage”. A crucial issue less than a year from general elections where the ANC risks, for the first time in its history, losing its majority.
At the same time, the country produced more electricity. Eskom said in late June it had achieved an average productivity of 60% at its plants, which are mainly coal-fired. “Production is starting to keep up with demand. That’s why we’re starting to see that for certain periods of the day, about two-thirds, we don’t have load shedding, we’re starting to balance it out,” Ramokgopa said last weekend.
However, this additional energy available is partly produced by independent groups from which Eskom buys the production “at exorbitant prices”, more than five times the cost in its plants, underlines Mr. Kgadima. Eskom’s production is also dependent on diesel, the price of which is constantly rising: to fill the supply gap, the company relies on standby gas turbines that burn 14 liters of diesel per second, or 50 400 liters per hour. The company has planned an annual budget of nearly 1.5 billion euros just for the purchase of diesel.
A colossal debt
Production also benefited from a mechanical effect: traditionally during the winter, anticipating a strong surge in demand, Eskom slows down maintenance operations on the country’s fourteen power plants. This year, the company has kept as many units in service as possible, reducing maintenance to 7% of the total fleet capacity, compared to an average of 13% in the summer. “There is a very significant risk in not maintaining the maintenance” of the plants, underlines energy expert Lungile Mashele. Eskom also announced on Tuesday, July 4, the resumption of daytime load shedding due to an “increase in production unit failures”.
The looting of public coffers during the presidency of Jacob Zuma (2009-2018) and the lack of maintenance of power plants, whose average age today is 35, are among the main causes cited for the crisis. electricity in South Africa. According to former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, corruption costs the company $55 million a month.
After his appointment at the end of 2019, the 55-year-old businessman suspended several senior officials for “misconduct” or “lack of results” and managed to partially reduce the company’s colossal debt, equivalent today to 23 billion. dollars that the government is trying to mop up. But “as long as there is no additional production capacity, there will be an inherent risk of load shedding”, has repeatedly preached the CEO, who resigned in December.
