No load shedding expected on Wednesday

There was adequate generation capacity to meet today’s demand in electricity, and as a result no load shedding was implemented, Eskom has said in a statement.

“The flooding at some of our power stations in Mpumalanga meant that we had challenges with coal handling which resulted in the loss of three generation units overnight. Some of these units will only be returned to service tomorrow (Wednesday). As a result, we had to utilise some of our emergency reserves, which include open cycle gas turbines and the pumped storage scheme, to supplement capacity,” the statement reads.

“However, there is still sufficient capacity available from our emergency reserves to meet tomorrow’s forecasted demand. We therefore do not expect any loadshedding tomorrow (Wednesday).

“Our unplanned outages or breakdowns were at 13 625MW as at 16:30 this afternoon. Our teams are hard at work to bring these unplanned outages back to service in order to increase available capacity.

“We are monitoring the system closely and we will continue to give periodic updates on the status of the power system as things may change at short notice.

“It is important to note that the power system is vulnerable and volatile with an ageing fleet that requires higher levels of maintenance. Getting back to stability will take some time and we request our customers to work with us by reducing their demand while we work on improving the effectiveness of our maintenance.”

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