Fed on track to lift rates this year

FEDERAL Reserve officials yesterday raised their assessment of the labour market and the economy, keeping the central bank on track to raise interest rates this year for the first time in almost a decade. “Economic activity has been expanding moderately,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement in Washington. Fed officials maintained their forecast for the benchmark interest rate at the end of 2015, while lowering it for next year. Policymakers predicted the rate would rise to 0.625 percent this year. – Bloomberg Up to 5 500 megawatts in planned maintenance would be performed this winter, Molefe said, which was three times more than had ever been done. And generating performance would be better than expected.

“For us it is a question of aligning our maintenance strategy with keeping the lights on,” he said.

“It is not one or the other. It is a mixture of both.”

Molefe said Eskom was pulling out all the stops to ensure the new units at the Medupi and Kusile power stations were added into the electricity grid.

He said Medupi’s unit 6 was now producing 800MW for the national grid, even though it was still in its test phase. The power station was on track for commercialisation in August.

Eskom would be able to achieve an 80 percent plant availability, 10 percent in planned maintenance and 10 percent in unplanned maintenance in the next three years, Molefe said. And the utility’s 96 percent supply of our elec-

“While there is expected to be sufficient power supply to meet demand for most of the day, in winter the load increase could be up to 36 000MW – particularly over the short evening peak between 17:30 and 18:30. The increase is predominantly due to electric heaters, geysers and cooking.”

The DA yesterday poured cold water on Molefe’s assertions of the utility meeting energy requirements this winter.

DA shadow minister for public enterprises Natasha Mazzone said Molefe’s claims that the generation performance of Eskom had been better than expected were exaggerated given the current spate of load shedding.

“We know this to be a blatant lie as we have suffered from load shedding and continue to be on tenterhooks on a daily basis,” Mazonne said.

“South Africans have every right to be furious at the arrogant and self-satisfied statement made by Mr Molefe, when we see the constant shedding of jobs and the collapse of our economy due to Eskom’s in- ability to maintain and ensure a secure and sustainable electricity supply.”

But energy analyst Mike Rycrost said Molefe’s estimates were not far off the mark.

Rycrost said considering the state of load shedding at the moment, the country should be able to get through winter largely unscathed.

“If we do have the 96 percent