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South Africa: Load-Shedding Only in Extreme Cases - Minister
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BuaNews (Tshwane)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
Vivian Warby
Cape Town
Only in extreme and emergency cases would there be load-shedding in the cold winter months, says Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin.
Speaking at an Economic, Investment and Employment cluster briefing on Thursday, he said: "There had been a drop in electricity usage by the top users and this had recently aided in ending the need for load-shedding".
Minister Erwin said with regard to the electricity emergency, meetings were being held regularly with all stakeholders.
"We believe that if reductions in energy usage can be made, there will be no need for load-shedding."
South Africa's electricity crisis began in January this year. A programme for load-shedding, which was implemented earlier in the year, was suspended last week.
This is partly due to the energy-usage cut that has been met by industry and municipalities.
"Therefore due to energy savings achieved by municipalities and industry, Eskom will not initiate pre-emptive/scheduled load shedding," said Mr Erwin.
However, he said emergency load shedding may be carried out in the event of the system becoming strained, or as a result of any unplanned outages.
Minister Erwin said municipalities and industry had managed to get a reduction of the 10 percent demanded and that behavioural changes were crucial to whether there would be more load-shedding or not.
The introduction of energy efficient equipment and the use of solar geysers would all go toward improving the usage of electricity over time, he said.
Minister Erwin was concerned, however, that cold weather could bring energy usage up and this could force load-shedding.
As far as the mining sector was concerned, he said the sector would not be affected and production levels would be as high as they were at present.
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Mr Erwin said that while there was a need to increase the cost of electricity, they would be trying as much as possible to ensure that impact on poor households was limited.
He said that a special coordinating structure, the National Electricity Response Team, had been established to deal with the energy crisis and that a summit would be held on 16 May.
"While the regulator Eskom must consider and make decisions, this summit will bring together stakeholders and give broader ground to the discussions."
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