Continued load shedding highly likely

Despite Eskom’s claimed best efforts to return additional generation units to service after the breakdowns that occurred during the week, the crumbling state-owned power utility said on that it had not made sufficient progress to enable us to suspend load shedding. In a statement, Eskom said that it wished to assure the public that implementing load shedding was the last resort, in order to protect the national grid. “In order to limit the impact of load shedding on the morning traffic peak, Eskom will start implementing Stage 2 load shedding from 09:00. This will continue until 22:00. Implementing load shedding is also necessary in order to replenish the emergency generation reserves to better prepare for the week,” the entity stated. On Sunday evening, Eskom teams successfully returned one unit at the Kriel power station, adding 475MW to the grid.

The return of a generation unit each at Tutuka and Kriel power stations has been delayed, contributing to the supply constraints. The power utility said during the coming week Eskom would continue to experience supply constraints. According to the utility, Arnot, Duvha and Kendal power stations were successfully returned to service after unexpected breakdowns. These have added a combined 1 565MW capacity to the generation system. The return of a generation unit each at Tutuka, Kriel and Hendrina power stations has been delayed, contributing to the supply constraint. According to Eskom, the cold weather has put the capacity to supply electricity “under severe strain”. The load shedding and breakdown of units is troubling, especially considering the fact that Eskom bemoans the fact that Arnot and Kendal contributes a large amount of the MW, but at the same time, has plans to decommission Arnot and Kendal plants in the near future, bringing into question the rationale behind these decisions.