It’s all systems go for winter, Eskom assures citizens

With just over a month to go before winter officially kicks in, Eskom says the country’s power system is stable.

Speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday, Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said a lot of work had been done in terms of maintenance in preparation for winter.

“During the Easter holidays, we continued with our maintenance,” he said.

“Currently, Eskom has a surplus of 4 000MW, which we are making available to international customers through selling.

“But if the demand increases locally, our first preference will be our South African market.”

He said Eskom currently had 35 000MW worth of power in reserve.

Commenting on power stations still under construction, Phasiwe said there was good progress.

“At Medupi power station, unit 5 has already been brought online, and with unit 6, both units are producing 1 600MW to the national grid.

“Unit 1 of Kusile power station is currently undergoing synchronisation and on Tuesday it was producing 500MW.

“Once the testing has been completed, it will produce 800MW,” Phasiwe said.

Construction work at the other power station, Ingula, was complete.

Meanwhile, Eskom said unit 2 of Koeberg power station was shut down on Tuesday for scheduled refuelling after a record 492 days of uninterrupted running.

Koeberg unit 1 was currently operating optimally and contributing 930MW to the national grid.

Every 15 to 18 months, each of the two units at Koeberg is shut down for refuelling, inspection and maintenance.

This routine maintenance is part of Eskom’s overall maintenance programme for its fleet of generation units.

Outages are scheduled to avoid having both units out of service at the same time and to avoid the winter months in each year.

//

For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter.