Eskom Performance Better After Scrapping COO Position, Blackouts Easing Off, According to Utility Chairman

• Eskom's chairman Mpho Makwana's move on reshuffling the management structure is "paying off"
• He says that removing the chief operating officer post has helped ease the pressure off the struggling energy provider
• Results can be seen in the easing of blackouts in recent weeks

Mpho Makwana, chairperson of South Africa's struggling power utility Eskom, said in an article by BUSINESSTECH that sacking the chief operating officer position has done the company well.

The move gives individual plant managers more direct access to senior executives. Results are seen in eased blackouts and the utility is expecting further gains.

The reason behind the current trend of lower loadshedding stages

In a TimesLIVE article, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa explained in a virtual press briefing the improvement of power generation in the past days:

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“June 2 was momentous in our journey to ensure we address the issue of loadshedding. We reached a 60% energy availability factor (EAF). The last time we reached a 60% EAF was on September 2, 2022,” said Ramokgopa.

The freezing cold weather's assistance in keeping the lights on

A series of winter storms over the past week had also played a part in helping offshore wind plants boost their output, reducing outages. Ramakgopa added:

“Generation available from wind power has increased due to weather conditions in the coastal regions. Peak demand is averaging less than 29,000MW, compared to 30,000MW projected in the first week of June.

Eskom had said in this week's schedule it would suspend loadshedding during the day. Furthermore, in the evenings outages will be kept on Stage 3 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Makwana said:

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“We are making headway. It’s still early days to have song and dance, but we’ve seen this consistent performance for a full month now.”

Makwana expects Eskom to turn a corner by 2025 and that the energy availability factor could potentially rise to 70% by then.

He says the utility is making headway but it is still early days for a celebration even though Eskom has seen a full month of consistence performance.

One Twitter user applauded the efforts:

@YusufLoon said:

"Good on you Mpho. Strength to you all. Be relentless in cleaning out the rot."

Ramaphosa approaches big businesses in a bid to fight power crises

Briefly News reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa has roped in big business leaders into solving the energy crises.

The big fish have agreed to work with the government in combating socio-economic issues that include energy, logistics, and crime.

Source: Briefly News