Eskom addresses the nation
JOBURG - Eskom held a media briefing at its Megawatt Park offices to update the nation on the state of the utility’s power supply.
“The decision to undertake load shedding was not taken lightly,” said Eskom board chairperson Zola Tsotsi.
“The impression was created that load shedding was attributed to wet coal, but the bottom line is that the power system is very vulnerable and we need to make the energy system healthier.”
He added that some customers are serviced by municipalities and not Eskom. Eskom does not carry their schedules but have been working with them to address the situation.
Tsotsi reiterated that load shedding is a last resort and is used to prevent a total power blackout that could jeopardise the economic stability of the country.
Brian Dames, Eskom CEO, apologised to all South Africans and assured them that the utility is working to ensure that it does not revert to load shedding.
According to Dames, on 5 March Eskom met the demands and that night the system was stable.
“In the early hours of 6 March we lost the four units at Kendal Power Station,” he said. This was due to the power station receiving very wet fine coal from the open cast mine and all the feeders into the station had to be stopped.
In an unrelated coal event, there was a hydrogen supply problem to the generator at Majubu Power Station.
As a result, by 5am on 6 March Eskom had lost 3320 megawatts and the utility had consumed all its emergency reserves.
By 8am, the utility faced a shortfall of 3000 megawatts, which had to be recouped. “In order to prevent a total power loss, controlled load shedding had to be implemented.”
According to Dames the coal bunkers are currently full, except for Kendal. However, the utility plans to increase its stock during the weekend.
However, the coal stock pile at Kendal is in a good state compared to other stations.
Dames warned, “Should anything go wrong, impacting the power supply by more than 1000 megawatts, it affects supply and demand.”
He said that the system frequency is maintained at 50 percent, but the power systems will remain constrained in the coming weeks in terms of its reserves.
Eskom has acknowledged that there was a problem with its website as it was inundated with queries. The public has been advised that the utility has taken to social media to better address their customers’ concerns.
They continue to call on customers to reduce electricity consumption.
