Worst case scenario for load shedding in South Africa: Eskom
Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer says the country is facing a significant strain on its electricity supplies due to multiple system breakdowns.
Addressing media on Wednesday morning (9 March), Oberholzer said the embattled power utility was forced to run 20 OCGTs (Open Cycle Gas Turbines) in combination with stage 2 load shedding to help it get it through Tuesday’s evening peak period.
However, he said that the system further deteriorated overnight after a unit each at Kendal, Duvha, Camden and Kusile power stations tripped.
Since then, Eskom has returned four units to service. However, these units still need to ramp up to full output, which necessitates a high usage of emergency generation reserves today. This being the fourth day of extremely high diesel usage, the emergency reserves are being depleted faster than can be replenished.
At present, Oberholzer said Eskom was currently facing:
- 15,334MW in unplanned outages;
- 5,505MW in planned outages;
- 20,839MW in total outages.
To keep this system running, Oberholzer said that Eskom was currently using nine million litres of diesel a day. Should the country run out of diesel reserves due to funding or the Russia and Ukraine invasion, then a worst-case scenario could see an additional six stages of load shedding introduced.
Eskom’s current load shedding schedules run up to stage 8, which allows for 8,000MW to be pulled off the grid, resulting in 12 hours of the day being spent in darkness – though this varies according to the region and municipal schedule.
An additional six stages on current load shedding levels would point to as much as stage 10 load shedding, which is uncharted territory.
“If you look at the finances we are using lot of money just to keep the system sustainable. Should we run out of diesel then the country would face an additional three stages of load shedding.”
“The country could face [a further] three stages of load shedding should Eskom be unable to replenish its dam reserves,” he said.
Oberholzer clarified that these additional stages would be added to whatever load shedding had already been introduced. However, he noted that this partly informed Eskom’s decision to introduce stage 4 load shedding on Wednesday so that the country does not reach this scenario.
“For us burning diesel and having a financial bloody nose is better than putting the country at a higher load shedding level.” The chief operating officer added that Eskom was still evaluating how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will impact its operations in the coming months.
Eskom’s head of generation Phillip Dukashe added that 2022 would be a difficult year for the power utility and load shedding as it is working to address its ongoing maintenance issues while grappling with legacy issues.
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: Eskom warns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will hit electricity in South Africa
Loading ...