Eskom to downgrade load shedding from Saturday morning

Eskom has announced that load shedding will be downgraded to stage 4 from 05:00 on Saturday morning until 05:00 on Sunday morning.

The ailing utility said the deliberate power cuts will then be reduced to stage 2 at 05:00 on Sunday, until 05:00 on Monday morning.

Eskom initially ramped up load shedding to stage 6 on Wednesday, but downgraded to stage 5 on Friday morning at 5am.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the parastatal will publish a further update as soon as there are any significant changes.

Electricity generation

“Since Thursday morning, a generating unit each at Camden, Lethabo, Majuba and Matla power stations were taken offline for repairs and planned maintenance.”

“In addition, the delay in returning to service a generating unit each at Arnot, Duvha and Kriel power stations has contributed to the capacity constraints. A generating unit each at Arnot, Duvha, Grootvlei, Kendal, Kriel, Matimba and Medupi power stations returned to service,” Mantshantsha said

Eskom said it currently 5 901MW on planned maintenance, while another 15 394MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.

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No money to burn diesel

Mantshantsha said Eskom also has no money to buy diesel

“As previously communicated, due to the depletion of the budget to acquire diesel for the Open Cycle Gas Turbines, Eskom has been forced to strictly preserve the remaining diesel for any extreme emergency situations such as multiple, simultaneous trips of generators.

“The pumped storage dam levels also need to be replenished during this time,” he said.

Koeberg outage and exacerbated load shedding

Mantshantsha said the refuelling and maintenance outage of the Koeberg Nuclear Power station will start on Saturday morning.

The refuelling and maintenance outage, as well as the long-term operation project of Unit 1 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, together with the chimney failure during October that has forced three generation units offline at Kusile Power Station have all taken a toll on SA’s power supply capacity.

“It will further reduce available generation capacity and exacerbate the occurrence of load shedding during the next 6 – 12 months,” Mantshantsha said.

Eskom has urged the public to reduce the usage of electricity and to exercise patience and tolerance during this difficult period.

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