Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa had a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in a bid to find areas of collaboration to deal with the energy crisis.
Since he was appointed, Ramokgopa has held meetings with a number of stakeholders in an attempt to find lasting solutions to load shedding.
The minister said load shedding must be ended soon.
However, he did not want to commit to deadlines on when this would happen.
The meeting with China’s ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong, came as Eskom continues to implement power cuts.
Ramokgopa said part of his discussions with Chen focused on where South Africa could work with China to deal with the problem.
There are several areas where the two countries could collaborate.
“Areas of collaboration include sourcing technical expertise, demand side management intervention as it relates to supply, training young people to meet demands for solar PV installations, introduction of micro-grids and emergency power,” said Ramokgopa.
Demand side management is used by power utilities to control demand by encouraging consumers to change their level and pattern of electricity usage.
The country has been plagued by load shedding in the past 15 years with the frequency of power cuts increasing from late last year.
When he was appointed Minister of Electricity, Ramokgopa said one of his immediate tasks was to reduce the frequency and intensity of load shedding.
He said he would be visiting all the power stations to identify problems.
Ramokgopa has already met the Eskom board and representatives in the business sector, which is concerned about the financial impact of load shedding.
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