By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Stage three load shedding will kick in at 16:00 on Wednesday and remain in place until further notice, state owned power utility Eskom has said.
This is due to the breakdown of another two generating units and a delay in return to service of three generating units from planned maintenance.
Eskom said it would issue another update as soon as it becomes necessary.
South Africa is likely to sit with prolonged levels of load shedding for the foreseeable future. In December 2022, 1,000MW was removed from the grid through Koeberg unit 1 being taken offline, and approximately 3,000MW is offline from various breakdowns at Kusile and Medupi.
According to Eskom’s outlook for the next year, it needs to keep breakdowns below 13,000MW to stave off the worst of load shedding, but the utility has struggled to keep outages below 16,000MW – the worst-case scenario in its plans.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter also recently announced his resignation on the back of the worst levels of load shedding on record. While Public Enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan acknowledged that de Ruyter is not to blame for the load shedding, the power utility has not been able to resolve the crisis under his leadership.
De Ruyter will be leaving the company at the end of March 2023. Eskom is still looking for his replacement.
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.
Eskom meanwhile says that it is implementing a full screening and security sweep of all its active contracts in a bid to clamp down on high-level crimes that have ravaged its operations over the years.
Eskom made several key arrests in 2022 related to the theft of coal, and diesel and one case of active sabotage.
In November, a truck driver and his supervisor from a transport company subcontracted to haul coal to the group’s Matla Power Station were arrested for allegedly stealing good quality coal and replacing it with poor quality product.
Two security guards employed by a company contracted by Eskom to protect Port Rex Power Station in East London were arrested for stealing 5,863 litres of diesel also in November, and in two separate incidents, truck drivers delivering coal to Camden and Kendal power stations were also arrested.
One of the biggest arrests was a contractor working at the Camden Power Station, who was arrested after he was positively linked to an incident to an incident of sabotage.
The saboteur – a contract worker – confessed that he purposefully damaged equipment to cause a breakdown at the power station so that his employer could get more maintenance contracts from the power utility.
These high-level crimes are taking place while the country experiences the worst levels of load shedding on record.
Criminal elements have caused billions of rands worth of damage and losses to Eskom over the years, as syndicates infiltrated companies contracted to work at its power stations and used contracts with the company to siphon millions of rands.