Eskom used this past weekend to recover some of its power station units by putting them on “opportunity” maintenance as demand for electricity was low and there was excess generating capacity.
“Our winter plan formally kicked off on April 1 2016 and runs until end of August 2016. As a result, we have already started to ramp down planned maintenance and ramp up energy availability for the expected winter peak so that we will have sufficient capacity to meet demand whilst we still conduct the required maintenance on our power station units,” said Eskom in a statement.
This followed a particularly tight week which saw multiple trips of units at three power stations resulting in a loss of 3 535 MW. No load shedding was implemented due to the increased resilience that Eskom has built into the power system over the past eight months.
Monday morning’s capacity was 34 276 MW. Unplanned outages are at 5 499 MW, with partial load losses at 2 147 MW as at 15:47 on Sunday.
Weekend opportunity maintenance (when demand for electricity is lower) will be maximised to ensure plant reliability and sustainability.
