Trust South Africa to be saddled with the Goldilocks of power utilities.
Too cold? Load-shedding. Too hot? Rolling blackouts.
At least, these were the messages to come, respectively, out of Eskom and electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa in September — a month in which the country had to endure stage 6 blackouts. With some generation units that apparently can’t operate optimally in warmer weather, we’re in for a long, dark El Niño summer.
God save the economy.
Of course, Ramokgopa added that the hot weather hot potato is something the government is looking into. That doesn’t inspire much confidence. After all, he assured us in July of reduced blackouts as generation capacity was restored; there was light at the end of the load-shedding tunnel.
Then there was President Cyril Ramaphosa, promising just last month that load-shedding would be done by 2024. And last week minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni assured us that the higher stages are a temporary phenomenon.
We've heard it all before. So, please, tell us another porky.
If Eskom’s constantly failing fleet can only perform in that narrow window when the weather is just right, we’ll be in the dark in perpetuity. Goldilocks indeed.
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