By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Stage 6 load shedding back until further notice due to the high amount of breakdowns, state owned power utility Eskom said.
Since Sunday afternoon, a generating unit each at Arnot, Hendrina, Lethabo and Majuba, as well as two units at Camden Power Station have suffered breakdowns and taken offline for repairs.
Further, two generating units at the Lethabo Power Station were shut down due to coal constraints as the New Vaal Mine that is supplying the station has been unable to deliver the expected amount of coal during the past week because of the heavy rains, it said.
“The three running units are operating at minimum capacity and are at risk of shutdown should the coal supply constraints not be resolved,” it said.
The power utility implemented stage 6 load shedding on Saturday night to replenish its emergency reserves, and warned that the same will be required on Sunday.
Eskom warned that, due to the high amount of breakdowns, there is a possibility of further changes on the stages of load shedding at short notice.
“A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur,” it said.
The return to service of two generating units at Drakensberg and a unit each at Kendal and Tutuka power stations are delayed.
Breakdowns currently amount to 19,385MW of generating capacity while 3,566W of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.
While Eskom is confident it will be able to avoid high level load shedding – and outgoing CEO Andre de Ruyter has indicated that some more capacity will return by the end of March – the group’s inablilty to keep breakdowns at bay has cast serious doubt on whether this will be achieved.
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.