More breakdowns for Eskom – stage 5 load shedding extended indefinitely
National power utility Eskom says it has experienced more breakdowns and unusually high demand, and has thus been forced to extend stage 5 load shedding until further notice.
The group previously planned to move to stage 2 load shedding on Sunday (11 December).
Adding to the stress on the grid, the group said that Koeberg Unit 1 had been taken offline this morning for planned refuelling and routine maintenance.
The refuelling and maintenance outage of Koeberg unit 1, together with the chimney failure during October that has forced three generation units offline at Kusile Power Station, will further reduce available generation capacity and exacerbate the occurrence of load shedding during the next 6 – 12 months, Eskom said.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy this week announced that it had signed 13 new power generation agreements to bring close to 1,800MW online over the next few years.
The projects are part of the country’s Bid Window 5, and are anticipated to start producing power by early 2025.
However, the country is likely to sit with prolonged levels of load shedding until then, with 1,000MW removed from the grid on Saturday through Koeberg unit 1, and approximately 3,000MW offline from various breakdowns at Kusile and Medupi.
According to Eskom’s outlook for the next year, it needs to keep breakdowns below 13,000MW to stave off the worst of load shedding, but the utility has struggled to keep outages below 16,000MW – the worst case scenario in its plans.
Schedules
For people living in the major metros, load shedding schedules are available here:
- City of Johannesburg
- City of Ekurhuleni
- City of Tshwane
- City of Cape Town (PDF)
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- eThekwini
- Manguang
- Buffalo City
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.
Read: South Africa signs 13 new energy agreements – with the load shedding axe at its neck
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