Load Shedding

Ramokgopa says planned maintenance is why SA still seeing stage 3 and 4 load shedding

Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa on Sunday said that Eskom has ramped up its planned maintenance of its power stations, which is why South Africans have experienced stage 3 and 4 load shedding this week.

Increased maintenance

Ramokgopa had previously said that maintenance would be increased during the summer months.

He said South Africa lost about 2 500MW to 3 000MW to planned maintenance in winter. That figure reached a high of 7 000MW on 8 December.

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“That means there’s an additional 4 000MW that has been taken [off the grid],” he said.

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Burning less diesel

Ramokgopa also said that Eskom’s open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) have been used less. He said they’ve “taken a conscious decision” to be “more judicious” on how much diesel is being burnt at the OCGTs.

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He added there is around R30 billion that has been allocated towards diesel in the budget. “You don’t want to get to a situation where you are running out of funds.”

This would also have contributed to the stage 3 and 4 load shedding currently in place.

Pump storage

The electricity minister said Eskom’s pump storage facilities were in good health.

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“They are in a good state and that’s why Eskom was able to announce some degree of reprieve – and we really think that if we keep to this, we shouldn’t see any degree of significant deterioration [and] we shouldn’t see an intensification of load shedding.”

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Load shedding schedule

Over the weekend, Eskom announced that load shedding would be suspended from 9pm on Saturday until 4pm on Sunday.

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The power utility said the suspension of the power cuts was due to improved generation capacity and improved emergency reserves.

It said it provide the week’s outlook on Sunday afternoon.

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Published by
By Gareth Cotterell
Read more on these topics: EskomKgosientsho RamokgopaRolling blackouts