Cape Town – South Africa’s power utility has implemented stage 4 load shedding from 05:00 to 16:00 daily from Tuesday, while stage 5 will be implemented from 16:00 to 05:00 on Wednesday.
Eskom announced in a statement that over the course of the week, 14 generators were expected to return to service, helping to ease pressure on the power system.
“Eskom cautions the public, however, that there is a high degree of uncertainty associated with this and these changes will only be possible if the units return to service as planned.
“Changes in stages of load-shedding can therefore occur at short notice due to the inherent unreliability of the coal power station fleet.” said the power utility.
Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented at 05:00 – 16:00 on Tuesday, followed by Stage 5
loadshedding at 16:00 – 05:00 on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/5xGUPaKQ7d— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) January 16, 2023
Eskom procured an additional 50 million litres of diesel on January 6.
“This fuel will be used sparingly to manage the pumped storage dam levels and to limit load-shedding during the day. These emergency generators contribute 5,700MW of capacity.”
A generating unit each at Kendal, Majuba and Tutuka power stations returned to service on Monday. The summer planned maintenance programme continues and will taper off during winter, making more capacity available.
“There are 12 generators out on planned maintenance, representing 5 804MW of capacity.”
Breakdowns currently amounted to 16 173MW of generating capacity.
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Picture: Twitter/ @Eskom_SA
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
