Mokaila, Raleru in contradiction spin

Oarabile Mosikare | Friday March 21, 2014 14:53

 

As they were trying to spin around the issue that has been bedeviling the nation for the past two weeks, the two contradicted each other.

Mokaila briefed Parliament on Monday that the first unit would be added to the national grid before the end of March while the second unit would be added before the end of April.

“Unit 1 is currently running and will be taken out of service, for boiler modifications, once the three other units are brought back into service and at an appropriate time,” said Mokaila. He said Unit 2 is the only one of the four which has not yet been taken over by BPC. “The boiler has been modified as per the recommendations of the designers and is expected to be brought into service by the end of April.”

On the other hand Raleru told a press conference on Wednesday that by the end of June all four units would be running at Morupule B. The BPC expects to finalise re-modification and repairs on the three faulty Morupule B units and restore them in phases, with Unit 3 to be restarted first in April, followed by Unit 2 in May and Unit 4 in June.

Raleru said when Unit 3 is reintegrated into the grid in April the country should experience lower incidence of load shedding during off-peak hours, but continue with a high risk of blackouts during peak periods.

Electricity demand and supply should “almost balance” out when Unit 2 comes back onto the grid in May, while the system will experience a slight surplus when the fourth unit is restored in June, Raleru said.

Last week an engineer at the troubled Morupule B dismissed claims by Mokaila that Unit 2 of the power station will be ready to supply electricity at the end of the month. The engineer said the unit would be ready in May or June, contrary to what the minister told Parliament last week.