Eskom’s new CEO brings hope
JOBURG – Eskom’s newly appointed acting chief executive Brian Molefe is beaming with confidence after the ailing public entity successfully performed the first part of its planned maintenance drive without load shedding since 24 April.
The company has announced that plans were in place to continue with the drive this coming weekend. Molefe said Eskom’s maintenance teams worked hard over the long weekend and were able to perform planned maintenance on 2 303 megawatts (MW) of generating plant.
He said, “They also returned 1 643 MW of generating capacity back to service over this period. The focus of the maintenance festival is to ensure long-term reliability of the plant as well as restore units that are currently offline due to technical faults.”
The generating units that were taken out for scheduled maintenance include Komati Unit 4 (91 MW), Ankerlig Unit 41 (147 MW), Kriel Unit 5 (475 MW), Kendal Unit 1 (640 MW), Camden Unit 2 (190 MW), Camden Unit 3 (185 MW) and Matla Unit 4 (575 MW). The units that have been returned back online are Komati Unit 4 (91 MW), Camden Unit 2 (190 MW), Ankerlig Unit 41 (147 MW), Kendal Unit 1 (640 MW) and Matla Unit 4 (575 MW).
However, Molefe warned that the power system continued to remain significantly constrained and will be so for the rest of this week. “We are currently not load shedding, but the power system remains tight all day, particularly during the evening peak period between 5pm and 9pm as the power system demand profile moves towards a more typical winter profile,” he said
Molefe also thanked all electricity users for using electricity sparingly. “Every little bit of saving counts in reducing the need to implement load shedding,” he stated.
Meanwhile, on the company’s twitter handle account, @Eskom_SA , the company said the load shedding prognosis for today remains medium to high and is dependent on the performance of the power plant.
Eskom called on all customers to continue reducing the load on the grid by switching off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances throughout the day, which will reduce electricity demand.
“As the nights begin to get colder, we request electricity users to consider energy efficient ways of keeping warm,” Molefe appealed to customers.
Eskom will provide regular updates on the status of the power system through all the media platforms.
