Good news or looming darkness? Mzansi goes almost two weeks without loadshedding

Bongani Bingwa speaks to Chris Yelland, Energy Analyst.

Yes, Mzansi has been without loadshedding for about 13 days now. 

Yelland says, "it's wonderful" but we should not be praising having energy for 13 days when we should always have it. 

"It's wonderful but we should go for no loadshedding all the time. Nevertheless, let's be thankful for small mercies. Of course, things can change but it just takes a number of generating units to trip out and change a good situation into a very unfortunate situation. It's happened before and it can happen again."

- Chris Yelland, Energy Analyst

So, why is South Africa having so much light and so little loadshedding?

Homes and businesses are opting for self-generation and alternative renewable power solutions which reduce the burden to power electricity through Eskom, says Yelland.

The energy expert says these "no loadshedding periods" are a sign of progress.

"Things are starting to come together. But I don't think we should think that the Eskom plant is turning a corner and everything is going to be well. We've got an uphill battle for some time still and we'll go through these patches of no loadshedding which is a good sign of progress."

- Chris Yelland, Energy Analyst

Yellend adds that further dats shows that unplanned energy breakdowns are consistently lower compared to what it was last year this time, giving Eskom a chance to do more planned maintenance which might lead to reduced unplanned breakdowns and more energy for the country.

Yellend says more power should not be attributed to conspiracy theories like thinking that it's election time so a surplus of power is a strategy to get votes.

"It's not because of conspiracy theories like because the elections are coming up. Data shows that the  demand for Eskom's grid electricity is declining which is driven by a number of solid reasons with logic and rationale behind them."

- Chris Yelland, Energy Analyst

Yelland also argues that the reason electricity prices increase while we have little to none of it seems to be because of "deep inefficiencies" at Eskom.

"Deep inefficiencies are built into Eskom as an organisation - that's why national treasury is digging their heels in bailing Eskom out."

- Chris Yelland, Energy Analyst

Overall, "there is some light on the horizon" for Mzansi and we welcome it. 

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation.