All-day stage 6 load shedding returns as Koeberg unit 2 goes down
Following the tripping of unit 2 at Koeberg Power Station this morning, stage 6 load shedding will be implemented from 16h00 until further notice, Eskom says.
The power utility could not confirm the cause of the trip as diagnostics are still ongoing. The Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is now currently completely offline, as unit 1 is still undergoing life-extension maintenance.
A single unit at Koeberg is almost equivalent to one full stage of load shedding (970MW), which means the grid is now under even more severe pressure.
Unit 1 at Koeberg Power Station is currently on a long-term outage for maintenance and refuelling as well as the replacement of the steam generators, and is expected to return to service on 6 August 2023. Unit 2 will be going offline for similar maintenance soon afterwards.
Persistent stage 6 load shedding has set alarm bells ringing for South Africa’s approaching winter months when demand is expected to increase.
Energy experts say that the utility is struggling to meet the lower summer demand now, so things are only going to get worse as the weather gets colder.
According to the electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, South Africa’s supply and demand profile is typically 27,000MW/32,000MW during the summer months – and this is likely to jump to 27,000MW/37,000MW in winter, leaving a 10,000MW shortfall.
Without a significant improvement in generation – or just as big a cut in demand – the country could thus be subject to stage 10 load shedding.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said that Eskom was struggling to reliably produce 23,000MW of energy, making the deficit even greater.
While Eskom’s generation outlook is showing red across the board – ie, load shedding throughout – experts say that the forecast doesn’t factor in sudden events like cold snaps, which could push demand up even more.
Ramokgopa said the country is facing a very difficult winter.
Eskom, meanwhile, has apologised to the nation for the persistent outages, saying that it is doing what it can to bring generation back online.
On top of constant trips and generation issues at its power stations, the group said it also has to contend with extended outages and long-term loss of key units.
Units 1, 2 and 3 of Kusile Power Station are currently offline as a result of the failure of the Unit 1 flue gas duct on 22 October 2022. Work is underway to bring these units back online from November 2023.
The unavailability of the three units at Kusile and the unit at Koeberg 1 has removed 3,080MW of capacity from the grid. This is equivalent to 3 stages of load shedding.
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.
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