President Cyril Ramaphosa has committed to work with Portugal in resolving the energy crisis in the country.
Ramaphosa said Portugal was one of the leading countries in Europe when it comes to renewable energy and this could benefit South Africa as it wants to end load shedding.
The country has been facing unprecedented and crippling power cuts, with thousands of jobs lost as a result.
Eskom has said it was hoping that some of the units will be back online before the end of the year.
Ramaphosa, who was on Tuesday hosting Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in Pretoria, said they were impressed with how Portugal was able to achieve energy security.
Eskom has been trying to increase the energy availability factor.
Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said they would now target stations to increase the energy availability factor.
From Monday, the government sent a team of engineers to four power stations that were in the first line of those to be fixed by technical experts.
Ramaphosa said South Africa can draw lessons from Portugal on the deployment of renewable resources.
“We were very impressed to hear how Portugal had been able to achieve energy security largely by utilising various other forms of energy sources, particularly the renewable ones.
“Portugal is one of the leaders in Europe in the deployment of renewable energy and we discussed opportunities for sharing best practice, for sharing investment in technology transfer and skills development,” said Ramaphosa.
De Sousa also said Portugal has been working hard over the years to achieve energy security.
Ramaphosa said they also wanted to strengthen trade and investment ties with Lisbon.
He said Portugal was an important partner in Europe.
Current Affairs