Eskom moves to stage four load shedding

The country’s struggling power utility announced that it is moving back to stage four load shedding as of Friday morning, 27 January 2023.

The parastatal offered no reason for the stage change, except a commitment to update the country as developments unfold.

Load shedding whiplash

Just two days ago, the princes of darkness over at the powerless parastatal announced that stages 4 and 5 load shedding would be implemented from 5 am on Thursday until Sunday afternoon.

The higher stages came courtesy of breakdowns each at Camden, Kendal, Lethabo and Majuba power stations earlier this week.

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South Africans are left with the grim realty that rolling blackouts are now part of our existence, with permanent load shedding at stage 2 and 3 to be implemented on ‘good days’ over the next two years.

South Africa’s aging coal plants

The country gets about 80% of its generation capacity from coal, and government’s failure to tend to the ageing infrastructure over the past two decades means the old stations are breaking down a much quicker pace than they can be repaired.

During a media briefing this week, Eskom’s chairman, Mpho Makwana, reiterated the risks and unreliability of the country’s coal plants, warning of sudden changes to the load shedding schedule as per the system’s functionality.

Just energy transition

While South Africa’s problems are compounded by load shedding, there are efforts to move towards renewable energy.

Just before his appointment to the Eskom board last year, Makwana warned against using green energy as it is the only major producer of electricity in southern Africa.

“There’s a government programme and policy that Eskom has to implement. But as we implement that policy, we need to be practical in our pursuit of a healthy energy mix. We need to learn from the mistakes that other economies may have made. “

Makwana had also emphasised the importance of ‘coal-based towns’ and the economic value chains that they support.

“If we think of the town of Ogies in Mpumalanga, if we were to – overnight – remove that town’s role as a coal town, what would the people of that town be expected to do?”

Eskom’s myriad of problems

The parastatal is also plagued with corruption at major plants, organised crime syndicates targeting coal trucks and a skills drainage problem with skilled workers either leaving for more lucrative opportunities overseas, or via retrenchment.

On top of that, Eskom’s delicate financial situation is impacting its ability to buy diesel to run its back up power stations.

If that wasn’t enough, a recent decision by the US to suspend a pact that enables South Africa to buy nuclear fuel for its flag ship station Koeberg, has been suspended.

The Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy between the US and South Africa expired on December 4.

Compiled by Narissa Subramoney

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