Eskom's Kusile power station. Picture: Eskom/Supplied
Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises would not rubber stamp the department's State of the Nation Address (Sona) commitments to urgently address service delivery shortfalls, particularly on load shedding interventions without the principals being present, especially Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) was giving an overview of the performance of the different parastatals and its most immediate response to the performance lethargy of entities including South African Airways (SAA), Transnet, Denel, Safcol and diamond producer Alexkor.
Parliamentarians in the Khaya Magaxa-chaired committee preferred to defer the discussions of each state-owned enterprise separately and in the presence of line ministers as they said issues of load shedding and improving efficiency a tthe logistics entity, Transnet National Port Authority, were urgent.
Through acting Director General Jacqueline Molisane, the DPE proposed measures to address load shedding as part of its commitments.
First, to fix coal power stations with a target of at least six power stations being constantly operated and, second, to enable businesses and household consumers to invest in solar energy.
On urgent measures for addressing load shedding at Eskom, Molisane said the department also envisaged deploying necessary skills to under-performing power stations, which included crowd-sourcing initiatives to accelerate recruitment that had so far yielded technical plant managers for Medupi, Kusile and Kriel, while cluster managers had been re-deployed to the primary energy units, mainly Lethabo and Tutuka.
Molisane assured MPs that the impending return of three units at Kusile would bolster the Energy Availability Factor (EAF).
Furthermore, the department anticipated to procure at least 300 megawatts (MW) from cross-border purchases within the next six months, 100MW of which was already sourced through the South African Power Pool (SAPP) markets of Mozambique and Namibia, while a further 1000MW would be procured through bilateral agreements.
Reporting procedures at Eskom had also been adjusted for power station managers to now have direct access to the group executive to accelerate decision-making operations.
The DPE was also counting on developing a feed-in tariff for distributors to procure surplus Small-scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) energy to compliment Eskom's existing standard offer programme where customers sell excess energy under a short-term purchase agreement.
The DPE also aimed to develop the draft frameworks on net billing and wheeling, which are being considered by the Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
Other initiatives aimed to slash load shedding included Eskom's plan of the National Transmission Company of South Africa coming on stream in April, through which Eskom anticipated spending R74.2 billion in the 2024 to 2028 fiscal years and a total of R297bn by the 2033 fiscal year to build up the necessary 14 000m of transmission lines.
At Transnet, it had already embarked on initiatives which include the conclusion of the roadmap for the restructuring of Transnet Freight Rail to create a separate management division for the rail network.
The entity has also concluded the partnership with private sector companies at the Durban and Ngqura container terminals.
Molisane glossed over issues at SAA, pointing out that its performance was affected by governance instability, operational inefficiencies, an ageing fleet, unprofitable routes and high operational costs.
Parliamentarians felt the matters needed to be deferred to future dates to be discussed individually with a full complement of political and executive executives from the government.
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