Eskom’s acting group chief executive, Calib Cassim said he is not “losing sleep” around a grid collapse and is confident the country will not experience a total electricity blackout.
Cassim was speaking on a panel at the Enlit Africa 2023 conference, which kicked off at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Tuesday.
Concerns have been raised about the possibility of a blackout, as the country has been battling stage 6 load shedding more frequently.
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Watch the video of Calib Cassim speaking about a total blackout:
Blackout warning
During a visit to KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday, President Cyril Ramaphosa also warned that South Africa is going to experience a cold and dark winter.
On Monday Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema also warned South Africans that in the next two weeks, there was going to be complete darkness.
“We’re almost at the point of grid collapse. It’s a reality that South Africans must know, that we’re heading to darkness and ANC politicians are continuing business as usual, as if we’re not in a crisis. We are in a deep, deep crisis,” said Malema.
No blackouts
However, Cassim said he has “all the confidence in the staff at the system operator” that South Africa will not experience a blackout.
“One of the biggest questions asked by various stakeholders is, ‘Is the country going to experience a blackout?’ I have all the confidence in the staff of the system operator. We will never get there.
“I don’t lose sleep around the blackout as the acting CEO or when I was the CFO. I lose more sleep around will we touch stage 8 because we need to manage that,” Cassim said.
Winter
Cassim added that a “successful winter” for Eskom would be to keep the peak periods at stage 6 or lower and during off-peak periods at stage 4.
“We had three units at the Kusile power station of 2 000MW, which are no longer available during this winter. We also have both units of Koeberg of 900MW that are not available. We are starting on the back foot of -3 000MW,” Cassim said.
Meanwhile, Cassim will be addressing the media on Thursday to provide an update on the state of the system and Eskom’s operational performance with the primary focus on the winter outlook.
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