By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter said while they are working to return broken down units to service there is no promise load shedding will end sooner than next week Monday.
Eskom implemented stage 2 load shedding on Tuesday saying it was battling to meet supply demands due to the breakdown of nine of its generators.
De Ruyter was this morning giving an update on the system challenges that have led to the implementation of weeks-long power cuts.
He said the utility expects an increased demand from 6pm on Wednesday evening due to the cold weather.
“We have a deficit between our demand and our available generating capacity, hence the reason for us to implement stage two load shedding. Obviously also bearing in mind that we do not wish to deplete all of our reserves in continuously meeting excess demand because then… we will run out of diesel to fire up our open cycle gas turbines… and we will also run out of capacity at our pump storage systems. These are very important back-up systems in order to prevent the far worse scenario of a total system blackout, De Ruyter said.
COO Jan Oberholzer indicated that the utility was seeking clarity from both the IPP Office and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy regarding recent statements indicating that financial close on 25 wind and solar projects had been delayed from the end of April to accommodate the issuing of budget quotations by Eskom.
In a note published on April 28, the IPP Office stated: “In line with Eskom timelines for the issuing of budget quotations, the first 14 projects are scheduled to achieve financial close by the end of July 2022, while the remaining 11 projects are expected to achieve financial close by the end of September 2022”.
Distribution GM Agnes Mlambo added that Eskom’s records indicated that it remained on schedule and “aligned to the timelines that we agreed with the IPP Office”.
She noted that most of the grid connections arising from Bid Window 5 (BW5) of the Renewable Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme were in the form of self-build projects, but that Eskom still needed to approve the designs.
“If all the information is submitted on time, and there are no delays from Eskom’s side, we are still on course to approve on time and be aligned to those timelines.”
De Ruyter, who has been calling for the urgent injection of up to 6 000 MW to decrease pressure on the load-shedding-prone network, said Eskom has “absolutely no incentive to delay the issuing of budget quotes” and had also beefed up the capacity of its grid access unit, which had historically handled very few applications.
However, he also stressed that a budget quote represented a binding commitment that could be made only once the designs were approved.
“In some instances, the IPPs do not provide sufficient information for our engineers to complete their designs as quickly as the IPP would expect.
The power utility moved to stage 2 load shedding on Tuesday afternoon, with outages set to continue for the rest of the week.
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
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.