Stage 8 load-shedding not expected, but planned for – says Eskom

Eskom announced today (January 14) that an article claiming that municipalities have been informed that stage 8 load-shedding is imminent, is erroneous and incorrect.

“In keeping with Eskom’s obligations in terms of the Disaster Management Act, we are required to develop contingency plans for identified major incidents. A Severe Supply Constraint is one of these, for which we have plans in place. Eskom also continually improves these plans.

“After 2015, Eskom and the municipalities identified the need to extend the planning in place related to the number of stages of load shedding and the national code was subsequently updated after significant engagement with stakeholders in 2016/17. This has been published as NRS048-9 Ed.2 and it caters for 8 stages of load shedding. Each stage provides for a reduction in load of approximately 5% which equates to roughly 1000MW at peak. Stage 8 equates to approximately an 8000 MW deficit. The likelihood of reaching Stage 8 is low,” the statement reads.

NERSA approved NRS 048-9 Ed.2 as a regulatory requirement in 2019.

In compliance with NRS048-9-2, Eskom and most municipal suppliers have developed load shedding schedules that cater for stages 1 to 8. When Stage 6 load shedding was implemented in December, not all Metros or Municipalities had published their extended load shedding schedules. The Association of Municipal Electricity Utilities (AMEU) therefore engaged most of its members to confirm their compliance to the code – i.e. whether stages 5 to 8 had been published by those Metro’s that had not yet done so.

“As a prudent System Operator, Eskom ensures that its contingency planning addresses several high impact, low probability incidents such as this. This planning is in close cooperation with municipal suppliers, and includes preparedness reviews and simulation exercises (as is standard practice for other incidents such as a nuclear incident or a national blackout),” the statement continued.

Eskom said that no load-shedding is expected today (January 14) although the power system was under pressure this morning following heavy storms and rains that hit Mpumalanga this week.

“The weather caused disruption to coal supply overnight, but we have managed to recover in time for the morning peak. We therefore do not anticipate load-shedding during the day. Furthermore, we have adequate reserves for our emergency generators and dam levels are high,” Eskom said.

They appealed to consumers to work with them by reducing their demand as far as possible in order to help avoid or reduce the level of load-shedding. “We will continue to give periodic updates on the status of the power system to keep users and the public updated of changes as they occur,” Eskom concluded.