Eskom warns that stage 4 load shedding could be on the cards

Eskom has warned that load shedding could be ramped up to stage 4 following a number of generator breakdowns.

The parastatal was briefing the media on the country’s rolling blackouts that come as a result of a constrained power system.

Eskom implemented rolling blackouts on a daily basis last week due to breakdowns and insufficient generation capacity.

The dark lords of Megawatt Park said the there is currently a loss of 16,307MW due to unplanned breakdowns.

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said the parastatal may be forced to increase load shedding to a higher stage this week if demand exceeds supply.

“The outlook currently is that we will implement load shedding stage 3 today and tomorrow and stage 2 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. But load shedding may be increased from stage 3 to stage 4. We are still going to be burning a lot of diesel and may be forced to implement load shedding throughout the day and not just in the evenings.”

Stage 4 allows for up to 4,000MW of the national load to be shed.

Outages will be implemented 12 times over four days for two hours at a time, or 12 times over eight days for four hours at a time.

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Oberholzer also said Eskom is making extensive use of its diesel-burning open-cycle gas turbines and its pumped-storage schemes to supplement generating capacity.

He said Eskom is burning through two million litres of diesel a day and has so far consumed 40 million litres of diesel during the month of May.

Earlier, CEO Andre de Ruyter said Eskom’s reserves are looking in “reasonable shape”.

“But we have to bear in mind that we have to top up our peak demand with burning diesel at our open-cycle gas turbines.”

De Ruyter said a diesel-supply vessel is expected to dock at Saldanha Bay on 24 May, adding that Eskom has to manage its diesel inventories very carefully to ensure it does not lose emergency reserves.

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