Load shedding likely to continue as maintenance not helping – Eskom COO Oberholzer

Eskom Group Chief Operating Officer, Jan Oberholzer said sporadic load shedding is likely to be implemented during summer months.

The dark lords at Megawatt Park gave an update on the current system challenges on Monday, this as the country currently battles another bout of load shedding to last at least until Friday.

Oberholzer said Eskom suffered a ‘disastrous’ week as 42 generating units tripped, which resulted in the current blackouts.

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He said there are likely to be power cuts during the summer months too.

“We are ramping up planned maintenance as we head into summer. We also find that our maintenance is not yet yielding required results. Units return to work, and then breakdown. This is due to lack of skills.”

Cyril Ramaphosa’s energy plan

Oberholzer said there have been a number of comments surrounding why Eskom is load shedding because President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan on the energy crisis should have helped.

“This is going to take time to implement. For the next 12 months we may not see the benefits yet. Until then, we need to rely on coal fleet. It is a delicate situation and it is critical that capacity be added as soon as possible.”

Koeberg nuclear facility

The embattled power utility said it is in a desperate race against time to ensure a R5 billion project to replace six ageing steam generators (SGs) at its only nuclear power station – Koeberg, so that it does not suffer any further delays.

However, their efforts have dealt a potentially major blow after the final 20-metre long, 360-ton SG was “dropped” inside French company Framatome based in Chinese.

“The Steam Generator Replacement (SGR) project is a key part of a host of works that must be undertaken as part of a R20 billion refurbishment of Koeberg, designed to extend the life of the power station, which was built in the 1980s, by a further 20 years,” Eskom said.

The power utility cut South African’s lights last week, implementing stage 4 load shedding

This was reduced to stage 3 from 5am on Monday morning.

Stage 2 will be implemented from Tuesday until Friday.

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