Thomas Garner - Why loadshedding could return by 2029

In this interview with BizNews, energy expert Thomas Garner looks at the reasons behind the warning in ESKOM's Medium Term Adequacy Report that loadshedding could return in 2029. He describes the various challenges ESKOM would have to overcome to prevent that, and shares what is possible to achieve in new grid capacity with different technologies: coal, nuclear, gas, solar and wind. He stresses that the challenges are “systemic and it comes a long way” and is also as a result of “the monopolistic nature of the animal ESKOM”. Commenting on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA statement that the National Transmission Company will be independent being contrary to what ESKOM and the Minister of Electricity had wanted, he says: “There’s different factions within ESKOM. There’s the faction that wants to see privatisation, a market, and full unbundling and then there's a faction that doesn't want to see it and wants to see the monopoly stay intact as it has been for the last hundred years. So it depends who's the management and it depends who's allowed to have the loudest voice.”