Load shedding: Weekend is unclear

Following a media briefing that took place on Thursday Eskom announced that load shedding would be implemented on Friday but it would be contained at Stage 1, that advisory has since changed as Eskom has announced that Stage 2 load shedding would be in effect on Friday, but not for the whole day.

On Friday, Eskom said: “Since the media briefing last night, we have had a major setback as we have lost additional capacity from Medupi power station.”

“As articulated, our prognosis was based on the state of the system and availability as at 17:00. Late last night, we lost Medupi 3, 4 and 5 due to coal and ash handling issues.

“This is in addition to the conveyor belt that failed on Saturday 12 October at the power station.

“This means that the power system has deteriorated further, creating an additional shortage of generation capacity of about 1,500MW.

“As a result we will regrettably maintain Stage 2 load-shedding for the greater part of today.

“We understand the negative impact this will have on our customers, in particular our matriculants who are writing exams this morning. In order to lessen the disruption on exams, [we] will be implementing Stage 1 load-shedding from 9:00 until 12:00 midday and thereafter revert to Stage 2 load-shedding until 23:00.

“We apologise unreservedly to our customers and South Africans for the short notification. We will keep South Africans informed about the status and our recovery efforts throughout this period.”

Eskom spokesperson Dikatso Mothae said Stage 1 requires the least amount of load-shedding – three times over a four-day period, for two hours at a time compared with stage 2 load-shedding which doubles the frequency of cuts, meaning there is no power six times over four days, for two hours at a time.

“We have already told them [department of education] that there would be Stage 1, so they already planned around Stage 1 load-shedding.”

What this additional failure at Medupi means for the weekend is unclear. During its media briefing Eskom said that it would endeavour to keep load shedding at bay during the weekend but that may well have changed since Thursday evening.

Financially strapped Eskom, which supplies 95% of South Africa’s electricity demand, imposed similar power cuts earlier this year, saying its units were struggling to keep up with demand.

#POWERALERT 1
Date: 18 October 2019

Stage 2 loadshedding to be maintained for a greater part of today @SABCNewsOnline @News24 @SAgovnews @ewnupdates @Moneyweb @IOL @eNCA @SowetanLIVE @Fin24 @BDliveSA @BusinessLiveSA @TimesLIVE pic.twitter.com/4H5tPeCiBu

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) October 18, 2019