By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Embattled state owned power utility Eskom has announced that its load shedding schedule will be changed, dropping stage 5 and stage 3 from the week’s schedule.
Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented continuously until 05h00 on Tuesday morning. Thereafter Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented daily at 05h00 until 16h00. Stage 4 will be implemented daily from 16h00 to 05h00.
The schedule is as follows:
Monday, 21 November
- Stage 4: until 00h00
Tuesday, 22 November
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 2: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 00h00
Wednesday, 23 November
- Stage 4: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 2: 05h00 to 16h00
- Stage 4: 16h00 to 00h00
This pattern will continue daily until further notice.
The changes come amid a desperate scramble by Eskom and the Department of Public Enterprises to find money to pay for diesel to generate power through the power utility’s open cycle gas turbines.
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan met with the Eskom chair Mpho Kakwana on Sunday evening (20 November) to discuss immediate issues facing the national power utility.
The group is already running over budget with no funds available to top up its diesel reserves which are meant to be solely for emergency generation. According to the company’s chief operating officer, Jan Oberholzer, Eskom has spent more than R11.2 billion on diesel this year to the end of October.
Diesel prices have been soaring globally; with Europe heading into winter, demand has skyrocketed while supply dwindles due to the Russian war in Ukraine. This has made it far more tricky and expensive for the national power utility to get their hands on the much-needed fuel.
Stage 5 load shedding was initially scheduled for the week due to Eskom’s diesel reserves running dry, putting further strain on energy generation already tight due to continued breakdowns.
South Africa has been plunged into the worst year of load shedding on record, with everyday South Africans bearing the brunt of it, slowing economic growth and stalling the country’s day-to-day activities.
Energy will be even more constrained in the coming months.
On 8 December 2022, Unit 1 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station will be shut down for normal maintenance and refuelling, and the replacement of the three Steam Generators (SGR) as part of the long-term operation to extend the operating life of Africa’s only nuclear power station.
The most reliable of Eskom’s generation machines, the unit is anticipated to return to service during June 2023. This will remove 920MW of generation capacity from the national grid during this time.
This will add to the host of units that are down due to technical faults – totalling almost 3,000MW of energy – showing the massive challenge Eskom has meeting energy demand.
South Africa has experienced the worst year of load shedding on record, with 155 days of rolling blackouts since January.