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South Africa’s power system is expected to remain constrained for the rest of the week going into the weekend.
“The system is expected to be extremely constrained. This is due to the cold, wet weather conditions and the loss of additional units as a result of technical faults,” said Eskom on Thursday, as it released an update on the state of the power system.
Many parts of the country have been experiencing wet and cold weather conditions which tend to increase demand in electricity as consumers use more lighting and space heating.
At the Majuba power station, generating capacity has reduced to about 1 200MW as the station is faced with wet coal challenges given that some of the coal handling is taking place out in the open.
As mentioned at a previous time, Eskom has implemented a wet coal management strategy to ensure that the wet coal risk is reduced at other power stations.
“It is however not possible to neutralise this risk completely, especially over periods of prolonged high rainfall.”
Recently the country was plunged into darkness after one of the silos at the Majuba power station cracked and later collapsed. This left South Africans without electricity. Subsequently Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown visited the plant.
On Thursday, the power utility said that similar to last week, the dam levels at its peaking power stations which use water to generate electricity are depleting.
The probability of load shedding on Friday was low.
“Eskom appeals to consumers to reduce their electricity usage throughout the day, but especially from 6pm to 10pm. Please switch off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances to prevent the need for rotational load shedding.” – SAnews.gov.za