Electricity Minister Says Closing Komati Power Station for Renewable Energy Was a Bad Idea, Starting a Debate

• Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa criticised the decision to close down the Komati Power Station
• Ramakgopa argued that the closure was motivated by financial incentives and pressure to transition from coal to renewable energy
• Ramokgopa highlighted that the new renewable energy facility that replaced Komati provides significantly less power to the grid

JOHANNESBURG - The Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, believes closing down one of South Africa's "best" power stations, Komati, was a terrible idea.

Speaking at the Standard Bank conference this week, the minister said that the coal-fired power station would help the country deal with loadshedding if it were still operational.

Minister of Electricity says shutting down Komati Power Station was all about money

Ramokgopa said that shutting down the "best-performing power station" was influenced by money and the pressure to move away from coal-fired power stations to renewable energy, reports TimesLIVE.

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“We closed a power station which was the best-performing station at the time and because someone gave us money and said decarbonise it,” said Ramakgopa.

He added that if it were up to him, he would get the power station up and running again to help with the loadshedding crisis.

At the time the power station was being decommissioned, Eskom cited the reason being the age of the power station.

Komati had been operational for 62 years. Eskom said closing down the power station would have little impact on the national grid.

Minister of Electricity says the new power station offers less power

Ramakgopa stated his case by saying that shutting down Komati for a renewable energy facility gave us less power.

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According to IOL, the nine generating units at Komati contributed 1000MW to the grid while the renewable energy it was replaced with only provides 270MW to the grid.

The renewable energy generation site provides 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries through a concessional loan facility from the World Bank.

Ramakgopa expressed the economic impact of decommissioning Komati, saying that 1000MW would help reduce one stage of loadshedding and help businesses thrive.

He said that while the government might have international obligations to see the Just Energy Transition through, it also has a responsibility to citizens and their livelihoods.

South Africans react to the Minister of Electricity's criticism of Komati closure

@Yandi_4 said:

"Andre is unapologetically proud of this strategy in his book and criticises everyone who didn't support his brilliant idea because he had secured funding for it‍."

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@ZweSibiya said:

"He is going to be replaced now, his job is to privatise Eskom, not the other way around."

@DumisaniMkiwan1 said:

"Ramakgopa is going to be investigated."

@Jumangji71 said:

"This one is gonna get the axe soon, he’s too open about private matters "

@MokoneNgwato said:

"I have always known you to be sober in thought. But they will recall you, Bro, or take away those powers that took forever to be granted by that Phala Phala guy."

Eskom’s loadshedding drives man in TikTok video to cook with scented candles, desperation has SA howling

Briefly News previously reported that loadshedding forced one person to try and cook with candles. A creator on TikTok filmed an interesting video showing how they came up with the creative idea.

Many people were fascinated by the video as it got over 2 000 likes. There were a number of comments from peeps who added their two cents to the cooking hack.

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@shiraz_sibeko posted a video of his pot of stew boiling even though there was no electricity because of loadshedding.

Source: Briefly News