The DA has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the worsening electricity crisis after Stage 6 load shedding was announced on Sunday.
THE DA has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the worsening electricity crisis after Stage 6 load shedding was announced on Sunday.
Eskom said Stage 6 load shedding was implemented, effective from 4.16am, following the tripping of a generation unit each at Kusile and Kriel power stations.
In a joint statement, DA spokesperson on Mineral Resources and Energy Kevin Mileham and DA spokesperson on Public Enterprises Ghaleb Cachalia said that Eskom was a load shedding stage away from a total grid collapse.
The statement said that with Eskom announcing Stage 6 load shedding due to a system-wide failure of generation units across its generation fleet, Ramaphosa was now duty bound to heed the DA call and declare a ring-fenced state of disaster around Eskom.
The party said Eskom’s plant performance had continued to deteriorate substantially in the past week, confirming a power plant maintenance plan that was in crisis.
“Now that it has become clear that sub-contracting the implementation of the Energy Response Plan to his National Electricity Crisis Committee (NECC) was a bad idea to begin with and little traction has been made, Ramaphosa should take active control of the implementation process and ensure timely delivery of the plan’s short-term targets to plug the electricity supply gap.
“Better still, as we have repeatedly said, declare a ring-fenced state of disaster around the beleaguered entity.”
The DA said according to the party’s Energy Response Plan implementation tracker, the NECC plan lacked urgency due to the absence of measurable targets and a clear time-line on project deliverables.
The DA has put forward suggestions to improve the NECC plan:
1. Recruitment or rehiring of experienced former Eskom staff (engineers, power station managers);
2. Procurement of electricity from neighbouring countries (just an admission that negotiations are ongoing);
3. A plan to eliminate sabotage, theft and fraud at Eskom; and,
4. Implement national Treasury’s plan to expand tax incentives for residential and commercial installations, which is still pending.
Eskom appealed to the public to help conserve electricity.
An advisory on how to avoid trips after load shedding:
- Trip-outs after load shedding are due to in-rush currents when networks are switched back on. To minimise possibilities of trip-outs, residents are advised to switch off non-essential appliances during load shedding.
- When electricity supply returns, residents must not switch on appliances such as heaters, aircons, geysers, stoves and pool pumps all at once.
- It is advisable to switch on each appliance, 15 minutes apart to reduce risk of prolonged outages.
- Residents must also take note that load shedding has a huge negative impact on electrical equipment as it was not designed for such frequent switching off.
