South Africa is currently grappling with a new electricity crisis, not due to power generation issues but because of inadequate distribution infrastructure.
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The problem began with municipal underinvestment in electricity distribution infrastructure, leading to many South African households being left without electricity.
Last week, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa addressed this issue in a media briefing.
Ramokgopa praised Eskom for its recent performance, stating, ‘Eskom has done exceptionally well in ensuring that its generation units have been able to meet demand over recent months.’
Thanks to Eskom’s efforts, South Africans have been free of loadshedding for over 100 days.
However, the country now faces a different challenge: distribution. Despite Eskom’s ability to generate sufficient electricity, not all households have a consistent electricity supply.
According to Ramokgopa, this is due to continuous underinvestment in distribution infrastructure by municipalities.
The minister explained that poor planning and a lack of technical capacity have exacerbated the issue. Many municipalities fail to ring-fence revenue from electricity sales for infrastructure investment and maintenance, leading to a lack of upkeep and protection. As a result, municipalities are now under severe strain.
According to MyBroadband, this strain has led many municipalities to implement load reduction, a system similar to loadshedding.
While loadshedding occurs when there isn’t enough capacity to generate sufficient electricity to meet demand, load reduction is used in areas where there is enough electricity but the integrity of transformers is at risk due to overloading.
Ramokgopa concluded the briefing by stating that South Africa’s distribution infrastructure lacks the capacity to meet the country’s electricity demands.
Consequently, some households do not have a continuous electricity supply throughout the day.
He emphasised that this issue is not due to Eskom’s performance but rather the inaction of municipalities. This is the crisis South Africa is now facing.
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Picture: Melinda / Gallo Images