Eskom quietly cuts 7,000 MW – without a move to stage 7
South Africa’s struggling state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. appears to have reached an unprecedented level of power cuts, indicated late Tuesday by the company spokesman.
The company cut 7,045 megawatts from the grid, a practice locally referred to as loadshedding, in order to keep the grid from a total collapse, Sikonathi Mantshantsha said in a post on Twitter.
While that would be the deepest level of outage on record, so-called Stage 7 power cuts were not formally announced on Eskom’s schedule.
The most recent announcement said the utility is implementing Stage 6, where it removes 6,000 megawatts.
Eskom’s media desk didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment, and Mantshantsha didn’t immediately respond to a phone call and a text message.
Evening Peak Feedback 21/02/2023, 19:15
Total demand: 30 480MW
Loadshedding: 7 045MW
Eskom OCGT’s Utilised: 14
Eskom GT’s Utilised: 3
IPP OCGT’s: 5
Renewable Gen: 1 262MW (Wind 791MW, CSP 390MW, PV 81MW)@Eskom_SA Available Generation: 23 289MW@EskomSpokesper1— SikonathiMantshantsh (@SikonathiM) February 21, 2023
South Africa has declared a state of disaster due to its energy crisis. Eskom has been forced to implement power cuts every day this year as its fleet of old and defective coal-powered stations frequently breaks down.
Read: Stage 8 load shedding will cost big businesses R120 million to keep the lights on
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