S Africa needs electricity intervention now

South Africa needs to promptly implement small interventions to ease the pressure on the national electricity grid, requiring an investment of between R50-billion and R100-billion, while longer-term initiatives to stabilise the power system are rolled out, says Stellenbosch University Faculty of Engineering Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies director Professor Sampson Mampwheli. “Eskom has in the past implemented a successful energy efficiency and demand-side management programme between 2008 and 2011. By reintroducing the energy efficiency and demand-side management programmes following government’s declaration of a national power emergency, the country can reduce pressure on the grid within six to eight months as it waits for new generation capacity to come online.”