By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State owned power utility Eskom is planning to suspend load shedding again this weekend, with ‘stage 0’ expected on Sunday (26 March) during the day.
Load shedding will remain at stage 2 until 05h00 on Saturday (25 March). Thereafter, stage 1 load shedding will be implemented until 16h00 before moving back to stage 2 for the evening peak.
Load shedding will then be suspended between 05h00 and 16h00 on Sunday, before returning to stage 1 into the new week.
Eskom said it will publish a further update as soon as any significant changes occur.
Despite load shedding easing over the weekend, breakdowns remain significantly high and are still beyond the 13,000MW ‘baseline’ the group planned for at the end of 2022.
Breakdowns are currently at 14,489MW of generating capacity while 6,190MW of generating capacity is out of service for planned maintenance.
During the last 24 hours three generation units were returned to service at Hendrina, Majuba and Tutuka power stations.
In the same period, a generating unit at Arnot, Camden, Kriel and Tutuka power stations were taken offline for repairs. The delays in returning units to service at Duvha and Medupi power stations continue.
Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa meanwhile says he does not believe load shedding will exceed stage 5 or stage 6 this coming winter.
Electricity consumption is traditionally higher in winter.
Ramokgopa wrapped up his week-long visit to fourteen Eskom power stations on Friday with a visit to the Ankerlig open-cycle gas turbine power station in Atlantis, as well as the Koeberg nuclear power station outside Cape Town.
“I foresee a situation where we will not go higher than stage 5 or 6 in winter,” Ramokgopa told the media.
“We need to place greater effort on the 13 power stations to improve the energy availability factor. I am more than confident in our ability to address load shedding and to help meet the power demand”.
Eskom announced on Tuesday, that it had removed the unit one steam generator at Koeberg from the containment building and placed it into a storage building, a development it described as a milestone.
The work forms part of the power utility’s Koeberg’s refurbishment as government attempts to extend the station’s lifespan by another 20 years.
Ramokgopa also said that the unbundling of Eskom and the establishment of an independent national transmission company remain top priorities for the government.
The roadmap for Eskom published by Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan in 2019 proposes the splitting up of Eskom into three units: generation, transmission and distribution. The restructuring is an essential part of creating a competitive electricity market in SA, where multiple producers sell power to a single state-owned grid company.
Ramokgopa said, I never said unbundling was not a priority. If you look at the energy action plan, it has five pillars and the last one deals with the reforms that are necessary. All I am saying is that it does not make a difference whether Eskom is unbundled or not when it comes to load shedding. It doesn’t resolve the generation problem. I’m placing additional attention on resolving the generation side and the rest of the issues, they are long-range reforms that are necessary to address energy security. They are very important.