Ramokgopa: We’re ramping up on planned outages

JOHANNESBURG - Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the recent intensity of blackouts is because of ramped-up planned outages.

The minister shared the latest developments around the energy action plan.

The country's been alternating between Stage 2 and 4 power cuts.

READ: Blackouts to continue into spring, summer

"We continue to register progress on the available capacity, so the performance of the power stations," the minister said.

"Part of the winter strategy was to scale down on what we call planned maintenance.

READ: Blackouts increased to Stage 2 until 4pm

"What we are doing now, because we've gone through the winter period, the demand is coming down."

He said the units are being taken out to be fixed during this time.

"This is not long-term outages. A lot of them are about three to five days to make sure that we fix the units so when they come back they're reliable and they perform at the right level."