Heavy rains in KZN contributing to Eskom’s power supply constraints, says De Ruyter

Eskom chief executive officer (CEO) André de Ruyter says the heavy rains and flooding which are causing havoc in KwaZulu-Natal are contributing to the power utility’s challenges.

“The heavy rain that we have experienced in KZN have contributed to some of the challenges we’ve had with our operational performance. We have had a significant ingress of debris into our Drakensburg pumped-storage facility,” De Ruyter said.

He was speaking at a virtual media briefing on Tuesday morning after Eskom announced that rolling blackouts would return at 5 pm and last until 5 am on Wednesday.

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While De Ruyter said the latest bout of load shedding was “regrettable”, he said the heavy rains in KZN – which have claimed the lives of at least 20 people – were adding to Eskom’s supply constraints, particularly at the Drakensburg pumped-storage facility.

He said even though the Drakensburg facility had grids to stop debris from entering turbines, they were often clogged up by excess debris which required technicians to clear them frequently.

“Another challenge with flooding was at the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme,” De Ruyter said.

“We have a challenge at Ingula with the dams being excessively full. In order to run a pumped storage facility, you need two dams and you want one dam full and one dam empty…

“When owing to heavy rain – the bottom dam is full and the upper dam is full as well – then we have a constraint because we can’t release water from the upper dam, otherwise you will cause flooding downstream of the lower dam, which of course is where we are right now,” De Ruyter explained.

De Ruyter said the inclement weather conditions in KZN had affected power lines and there were concerns about localised flooding that could affect Eskom’s substations.

Crews dispatched

He said maintenance crews were dispatched to the affected areas as the situation was an emergency.

“This is an emergency situation and I think that’s quite clearly just judging by the more than 200mm of rain that has fallen in the eThekwini Municipality over the past 24 hours and the flooding that has taken place.”

De Ruyter warned that the situation in the province remained fluid.

“At the moment it is very dynamic. Things are challenging all the time [and] the floods are still in progress.

“And in a number of instances we’ll have to wait for the floodwaters to subside before we can start a process of assessing damage and to start the repair work that will be required,” he said.

Planned maintenance

At the same time, De Ruyter said Eskom was continuing with its planned maintenance programme to catch up on its historical backlog.

He said the utility had about 70% of diesel reserves, which was enough to keep units running.

According to De Ruyter, Eskom’s maintenance programme would be scaled back during the winter months as demand for electricity is usually higher.

“In spite of the higher demand it should give us breathing room to be able to keep load shedding as low as possible.”

WATCH: KZN devastated by floods, and more rain is expected