An expected evening peak of 29 429 MW, combined with fully unplanned and partial losses of 13 662 MW, Eskom says the demand is “uncomfortably high” as they have “no choice” but to extend load shedding until at least until Friday.
An expected evening peak of 29 429 MW, combined with fully unplanned and partial losses of 13 662 MW, Eskom says the demand is “uncomfortably high” as they have “no choice” but to extend load shedding until at least until Friday.
A media briefing was held on Thursday during which Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter said they had a shutdown at Komati 9, Kendall 6, Medupi 6, as well as an interruption at Apollo substation.
“We are dealing with an extensive legacy of under maintenance over about two decades.
“We had to take a decision to extend load shedding at least until Friday depending on how the situation changes, from unplanned trips or potential further breakdowns, that risk remains.
“We also lost two units, then Medupi 2 tripped just after 8 due to a boiler tube leak.”
De Ruyter said that generation units at Matla, Grootvlei and Camden power stations were returned to service.
Eskom’s head of generation, Phillip Dukashe, said a huge discomfort was units at risk, in excess of 11 000MW .
He added that while leave for staff had not been cancelled, they would be using the long weekend to work on as many units as possible as their work had also been disrupted by heavy rains.
“We are looking forward to the long weekend, we will use this time to work through as many units as possible.
“There has been persistent rain, we will use this dry period to recover as much as possible in terms of coal supply.
“In terms of planned maintenance, from around May, (we are) starting to get to big units. (We) foresee that we will keep planned maintenance around 5000MW to 8000MW, we would not like to compromise that,” he said.
In KZN, De Ruyter said the eThekwini Municipality would not be experiencing load shedding following an agreement between the entities.
“In KZN (we’ve done an) assessment of the Eskom grid, by large our grid is still in tact. Sme minor interruptions, we have offered our assistance to municipalities to help with spares, maintenance crews. We also liaising to offer assistance to disaster management, and we’ve made an arrangement with eThekwini and will not be implementing load shedding there,” he said.
According to De Ruyter what Eskom desperately needs is headroom to carry out maintenance of at least 46 000 MW.
He said historically projects had been overspent, were done late and did not form part of the required specification.
“The Independent Power Producers (IPP) office can proceed with bid window 5 and 6 (for potential bidders). We are making available Eskom owned land for renewable energy projects to be connected to the grid, to provide headroom to carry out maintenance,” he added.
This news was originally published by IOL.