By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Stage 6 load shedding will continue until Friday morning at 05:00, whereafter it will be reduced to Stage 5 until Saturday morning, Eskom announced on Wednesday.
A further update will be provided as soon as there are any changes, it said.
Wednesday, 7 December
- Stage 6: until 00h00
Thursday, 8 December
- Stage 6: 00h00 to 00h00
Friday, 9 December
- Stage 6: 00h00 to 05h00
- Stage 5: 05h00 to 00h00
Saturday, 10 December
- Stage 5: 00h00 to 05h00
- Further stages to be determined
The heightened levels of load shedding are due to several breakdowns plaguing the group’s fleet.
“Since Tuesday night, breakdowns of two generating units at Grootvlei Power Station occurred, as well as a unit each at Arnot, Duvha, Kendal, Kriel and Tuttuka Power Stations,” it said.
In addition, two units at Arnot, a unit each at Camden, Kendal and Kriel power stations have been delayed in returning to service.
A unit a Matla Power Station returned to service on Tuesday night, the group said.
Breakdowns have increased to over 19,000MW, from 16,000MW offline on Wednesday morning as a result, which led to load shedding being pushed to stage 6. A further 5,000MW is offline for planned maintenance.
Energy analyst Ted Blom says that if Eskom does not resolve its current stage 6 load shedding crisis before Thursday (8 December), there is a high likelihood that the country will be forced into stage 7 load shedding before the weekend.
“We will move to stage 7 because we’re about to lose another 1,000 megawatts when they take unit 1 of Koeberg down for refurbishment for six months,” he said. “We’re on the cusp of record-breaking stage 7 load shedding.”
Eskom warned South Africans in mid-November that its plan was to take the Koeberg unit down on 8 December as part of the planned maintenance at the station. Koeberg unit 1 is the most reliable unit in the Eskom fleet and will be down until mid-2023, pulling 920MW from the grid.
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said at the time that the power utility will be embarking on several other capital investments and major repair projects at the same time, which carry significant risks for the country’s generation capacity.
These projects will pull up to 2,300MW of generating capacity from the system, and as a result, Oberholzer said that the public should anticipate increased load shedding until the problems are resolved in 2023.
This will add to the host of units that are down at Medupi and Kusile due to technical faults – totalling almost 3,000MW of energy – showing the massive challenge Eskom has meeting energy demand.
“As previously communicated, due to the depletion of the budget to acquire diesel for the Open Cycle Gas Turbines, Eskom has been forced to strictly preserve the remaining diesel for any extreme emergency situations such as multiple, simultaneous trips of generators,” it said.
The pumped storage dam levels all need to be replenished during load shedding, it said.
Things for the load shedding outlook are looking strained, however, with Eskom warning that its long-term maintenance and refuelling projects are kicking off on Wednesday night.
Unit 1 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station will be taken offline on Wednesday and will remove 1,000MW from the grid for six months. Meanwhile, structural failures at Kusile will keep three units offline for the next year, further reducing available energy capacity.
Meanwhile ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe says the appropriate action will need to be taken at Eskom to help bring the country out of the energy crisis.
He addressed reporters in Johannesburg after the power utility announced stage 6 load shedding on Wednesday.
Mabe says there are various factors that must be considered.
“When you talk about human capital, do you have sufficient capacity to be able to deal with this? Infrastructure-wise, is it ailing? Investment-wise, are you putting the right investment?
“On the energy mix, are you making sure that you are really applying what is required on energy mix to be able to give the people of South Africa the certainty they need.
“Because what South Africans need is that if it is a problem of human capital, if you don’t have the right resources move out those and bring others who can do the work. If the problem is ailing infrastructure, get the right infrastructure.”