Blackouts, Saturday 20 June 2015: Stage 2 from 18:45 - 10pm

[Shi]

Loadshedding has been suspended.....

What a night ... 1 to 2 to 3 to 2 to 1 (depends on who you believe) and load shedding suspended early.

I'm just glad I wasn't off ... scheduled for Stage 3 from 20:00.

 

[Captain Beer]

We must be just on the threshold. Apparently it's Steenbras Dam's extra 180MW keeping the lights on here.

 

[Splinter]

What I think is scary, is that every power station around the country would have got a "keep the lights on at all costs" after Molefe's PR performance. Pretty sure that there are turbines out there screaming themselves to death because ANC mofo's ordered power to stay on....for a little while longer.

 

[ChocolateBadger]

What I think is scary, is that every power station around the country would have got a "keep the lights on at all costs" after Molefe's PR performance. Pretty sure that there are turbines out there screaming themselves to death because ANC mofo's ordered power to stay on....for a little while longer.

That's why there are so many "technical faults". All power stations are running at max capacity for longer than they should. The much-neglected maintenance plans are now showing up with these power stations and generators breaking down all the time.

 

[dualmeister]

What a night ... 1 to 2 to 3 to 2 to 1 (depends on who you believe) and load shedding suspended early.

Some drunk Eskom employee mixing up the "daily emergency notices".

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

I have a theory about what happened last night:

Last week C0CT started this "campaign" where ESKOM starts load shedding, but CoCT say THEY have enough power so there will be no shedding in CoCT.

Last night they did this again, BUT suddenly CoJ ALSO jumps on the bandwagon with similar statements. What this means is that ESKOM tells CoCT and CoJ to load shed, BUT they decide it isn't necessary. (Elections coming soon....)

So what happened last night: the grid started collapsing and suddenly Stage 3 was put into effect?

I would love to hear how this will be spinned on Monday.

 

[Sinbad]

I have a theory about what happened last night:

Last week C0CT started this "campaign" where ESKOM starts load shedding, but CoCT say THEY have enough power so there will be no shedding in CoCT.

Last night they did this again, BUT suddenly CoJ ALSO jumps on the bandwagon with similar statements. What this means is that ESKOM tells CoCT and CoJ to load shed, BUT they decide it isn't necessary. (Elections coming soon....)

So what happened last night: the grid started collapsing and suddenly Stage 3 was put into effect?

I would love to hear how this will be spinned on Monday.

Nah.
Basically eskom tells each municipality to reduce demand by x megawatts (say 300).
coj fires up their little power station in Kempton, and turns off people's geysers with smart meters or ripple delays and reduces the demand by the requested amount.

As to the state of the generation fleet, less than 50% of generators are healthy and a large number are in critical condition

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

Nah.
Basically eskom tells each municipality to reduce demand by x megawatts (say 300).
coj fires up their little power station in Kempton, and turns off people's geysers with smart meters or ripple delays and reduces the demand by the requested amount.

As to the state of the generation fleet, less than 50% of generators are healthy and a large number are in critical condition

How does any of this info = "Nah" ?

 

[Sinbad]

How does any of this info = "Nah" ?

Nah their load saving does not suddenly require eskom to go stage 3 because they are not having enough.

 

[TheMightyQuinn]

Nah their load saving does not suddenly require eskom to go stage 3 because they are not having enough.

We're talking country wide here, not just one region.

Anyway...let's wait for tomorrow's spin and see.

 

[Sinbad]

We're talking country wide here, not just one region.

Anyway...let's wait for tomorrow's spin and see.

Yes, you implied that coct and coj not implementing shedding nearly killed the grid.

 

[vaakseun]

Sinbad is correct. There's no conspiracy theories here. City of Cape Town got their extra capacity from the Steenbras pumped storage scheme (which the city owns and maintains) and Joburg CityPower got their extra capacity from Kelvin coal power station which is privately run and maintained.

Neither of these two metro's would be so reckless as to endanger the entire grid.