By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom has announced that stage 4 and 5 load shedding will be implemented from 05h00 on Thursday (26 January) morning until Sunday afternoon.
According to the group, load shedding has had to be pushed to a higher stage as a result of losing a generation unit each at Camden, Kendal, Lethao and Majuba power stations over the past 24 hours.
Eskom said that returning generating units back to operation at each Matla and Tutuka has been delayed.
“Two generating units at Kriel, a unit each at Majuba and Tutuka power stations have been returned to service,” said Eskom.
The company added that planned maintenance sits at 6,462MW while the current amount of generating capacity is 15,977MW.
Eskom has been in crisis since before the start of this year, with load shedding taking a drastic toll on the everyday lives and businesses of South Africans.
On January 23, after an announcement by the company that stage 2 and 3 load shedding would be put in place, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha denied reports that the company plans to implement permanent stage 2 and 3 load shedding for the next two years.
He said that while the measure was considered, it was ultimately rejected as it would not guarantee that load shedding would remain at lower levels.
Eskom, meanwhile which has promised to bring in the best original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to improve maintenance, is at the same time steaming ahead with litigation against one of them, which, if successful, will bar the company from maintaining the boilers it built for several years.
Contracting OEMs is a key part of the Eskom board’s generation recovery plan. It is also a strategy endorsed by the National Energy Crisis Committee. There are only three OEMs of Eskom’s older coal-fired boilers in SA: Babcock Ntuthuko Engineering, Steinmuller, and Actom.
Hitachi is the OEM for the boilers at Medupi and Kusile.
Babcock is the designated OEM of the boilers at Matla, Lethabo, half of the units at Hendrina, and Grootvlei 1 to 4 and 6. It is also the engineering company with the best knowledge of Kendall, as it has been responsible for maintenance since the power station began.
While the maintenance contracts for the boilers were previously shared by Babcock, Steinmuller and Actom, in 2020, a new tender to the value of R16 billion was advertised. A year later, it was finally awarded to Steinmuller and Actom, while Babcock was disqualified for failing to submit a welding certificate that Eskom already had in its possession.
A court overturned the tender award last October, finding that Babcock had been irrationally excluded as Eskom already had the certificate in its possession from earlier contracts. The court gave Eskom eight months to run a new tender, leaving the status quo in place for the interim so that the Eskom maintenance programme would not be affected.
But that was not the end of the story. Eskom resolved to appeal the judgment, which will be heard in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday. If the appeal goes in Eskom’s favour, Babcock is excluded from maintaining Eskom boilers until 2025.
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.
Meanwhile Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe says cutting the proposed contract periods with Karpowership from 20 years to 10 years could help government realise its ambitions to procure energy urgently from the floating power stations.
Mantashe was speaking at an ANC Energy Dialogue held in Johannesburg on Tuesday, during which Eskom announced that Stages 4 and 5 load shedding would be implemented until Sunday.
Karpowership – a Turkish company that provides ship-mounted gas power plants – was awarded three projects under government’s 2021 emergency power procurement programme to award around 2 000MW, but these projects have been unable to reach financial close as the projects are faced with a raft of lawsuits and administrative challenges by detractors.
A key concern has been the 20-year duration of the emergency power contracts.
Mantashe said the Karpowerships remain an emergency power option to help alleviate South Africa’s energy crisis.
“People are saying ’20 years is too long, reduce it’,” Mantashe said. “I think if we can get to 10 years, it will be okay. It will cost us a little bit more per unit … it will be a little bit expensive, but cheaper than the cost of load shedding on the economy,” the minister said to a round of applause from the audience.