Why it will take Eskom’s grid up to 10 days to recover from strike action
Power utility Eskom said that its system could take up to 10 days to recover from the effects of the recent industrial action, having avoided load shedding on Sunday.
Eskom, which generates almost all of the nation’s electricity, has been locked in a dispute with workers after wage talks broke down last week over the state-owned utility’s insistence that it can’t afford pay increases.
The company began cutting power to some areas Thursday night for the first time since 2015, as demonstrators blockaded roads and attacked staff.
The protests by employees came at a tough time for Eskom and the South African economy more broadly.
While demand for electricity increases over the Southern Hemisphere winter, Eskom has also battled coal shortages, allegations of corruption and mismanagement, and struggled to raise the funding it needed earlier this year.
A prolonged repeat of outages from three years ago would undermine signs of recovery in Africa’s most-industrialized economy.
The utility got a court order declaring the protests unlawful and prohibiting the intimidation of other workers and contractors. Employees were also barred from hijacking coal trucks and sabotaging Eskom’s electricity infrastructure.
The power system continues to remain constrained due to a shortage of capacity from the effects of the recent industrial action and Eskom will provide an update on the power system through all media platforms.
“Eskom’s prognosis is that the power system will take up to approximately 10 days to recover from the effects of the recent industrial action, once all staff return to work on Monday,” it said in a statement on Sunday.
“The estimated 10-day prognosis for full restoration is due to the effects of the industrial action which interrupted continuous processes at the power plants. These processes have now to be cleared out and restarted which would take additional time,” it said.
These include:
- Coal management and transportation – the inability to transport coal from its coal stock yards to coal bunkers due to the absence of operating staff. Low coal stockpiles at some stations were exacerbated by road closures as coal delivery had to be suspended.
- Significant increase in plant outages and a bottleneck in routine maintenance due to the lack of resources to optimally operate the plant; such as ash clearing and mechanical failures that occurred during the period. Smaller stations can only return units more or less every 24 hours due to demineralised water limitations and some stations that are operating at high output have to manage their ash levels to achieve optimal productions. These stations are expected to only return to normality by Thursday.
- Eskom is currently managing diesel levels at peaking plants at 50% to ensure that sufficient diesel generation is available for emergencies.
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