South Africa’s electricity crisis is far from over, as the Power Utility has warned that load-shedding might be implemented at Stage 5 over the winter period.
Eskom expects load-shedding to be implemented mostly at Stage 5 due to breakdowns and capacity outages caused by unplanned maintenance at 15 000MW during the winter period.
The Power Utility’s announcement has caused a stir among citizens, who are already struggling with rising costs and increasing power outages.
South Africans are already bracing themselves for more darkness and disruption to their daily routines.
Eskom Board Chairperson Mpho Makwana warned South Africans that the upcoming winter months could be challenging.
In a statement on Thursday. Makwana called for cooperation among all stakeholders to manage power outages during this period.
Makwana reiterated the Board`s support of Eskom management in their efforts to improve the performance and life extension of Generation coal-fired power stations.
Working through the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECOM) streams we see the fruits of collaboration between our internal forensic department, the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in dealing with corruption cases,” added Makwana.
Interim Group Chief Executive Calib Cassim said that South Africa experienced the highest levels of load-shedding as the energy availability factor (EAF) deteriorated to 56% in the past financial year, against the target of 60%.
Giving a performance overview, Eskom Generation Group Executive, Bheki Nxumalo, said that the power generating system continues to show poor performance.
This is due to frequent plant breakdowns subjecting the country to varying and high load-shedding stages.
Unit 1 at Koeberg Power Station is currently on a long-term outage for maintenance and refuelling as well as the replacement of the steam generators. It is expected to return to service on September14, 2023.
“We are striving to reduce plant breakdowns to 15 000MW or below for the winter period to keep load-shedding at lower stages.
We, however, concede that this will be extremely hard given the unreliability and unpredictability of the power generating fleet. We are already about 3 000MW worse off this winter compared to the same period last year,” said Nxumalo.
Eskom Group Executive for Transmission, Segomoco Scheppers, allayed fears of a possible national blackout speculated across various media platforms.
He stated that there are a number of control measures, including load-shedding, aimed at protecting the power system from collapsing.
Scheppers, however, cautioned that losses of 18 000MW or more during the winter period could result in load-shedding up to Stage 8.
“Efforts are underway to return a number of units from outages to mitigate the worst case scenario of 18 000MW or above from materialising. Eskom will also keep planned maintenance at 3 000MW during the winter period,” said Scheppers.
Eskom Group Executive for Distribution, Monde Bala, said Electricity Parastatal would also rely on its Demand Side Management interventions to manage the capacity gap in winter and beyond.
“We believe South Africans can greatly support efforts to mitigate the impact of the capacity shortfall. We call on electricity users to use energy sparingly to safeguard the national grid.
‘We also call communities to report infrastructure theft and vandalism as well as illegal connections,” said Bala.
He said Eskom would continue to rely heavily on open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) to prevent higher load-shedding stages, particularly during the morning and evening peak.
He stated that there are a number of control measures, including load-shedding, aimed at protecting the power system from collapsing.
Scheppers, however, cautioned that losses of 18 000MW or more during the winter period.
Be First to Comment