Govt must take responsibility for electricity crisis: energy expert
An energy expert says government must take responsibility for the electricity crisis and stop pointing fingers.
On Wednesday, Eskom intensified load shedding from stage 2 to 4, saying it had lost more generation capacity after several units tripped.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday night said a recovery plan had been developed after meeting with the Eskom board and management yesterday.
He says some generation units are due to return to service over the next two days, with the rolling blackouts expected to end this weekend.
Gordhan says Eskom has 100 generators that can be used on voting day on Monday, should they be needed.
Energy expect Chris Yelland says many of the plants are near or at the end of their life.
"I think a lot of the problem in respect of replacing old clapped-out plants that have been poorly maintained, that is non-compliant, inefficient, dirty, uses a lot of water - basically environmentally disastrous and needs to be replaced.
"And no new procurements have taken place. So the old plants are getting older every year is not being replaced regularly with new plants and that is outside of Eskom's hands."
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