Load shedding will get worse before it gets better, says energy expert

An energy expert is warning rolling blackouts are likely to get worse before they get better.
Eskom’s leadership team yesterday revealed a nine-point plan which it believes will take around 18 months to turn things around.

It includes a better maintenance regime and a recruitment drive to shore up the skills needed to turn the utility around.

Energy expert Chris Yelland believes the timeline is unlikely to be set in stone, but it does give some sense of the scale of the problems faced.

“It does give an indication that this is not a short term thing that we are experiencing right now. It is going to be continuing for some time as they get down to what they call their new philosophy maintenance, which is getting back to the maintenance specified by the original equipment manufacturers.

Yelland says it’s likely things will get worse before they get better.

“In the short term, it’s actually going to increase the level of unavailability because the more units you take out for maintenance, the less units you have available for meeting demand.”