Unseen load-shedding disaster warning — four substations explode
Four mini substations in Johannesburg blew up on Thursday when Eskom restored power after scheduled load-shedding, causing several areas to remain without power even after their rotational power cuts ended.
Infrastructure damage like this, caused by load-shedding, resulted in some areas of Gauteng remaining without power for extended periods, City Press reported.
The Association for Municipal Electricity Utilities (AMEU) told the paper that such damage could be “an unseen disaster in the making” and that, as it stands, municipalities already struggle to manage infrastructure repairs.
Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck equated the extended power cuts to Stage 6 or 8 load-shedding, explaining that council workers could not keep up with repairs.
“Eskom applied stage 4 load-shedding this week, but in Johannesburg, the impact was more like stage 6 or 8 because of the city’s infrastructure,” he said.
“The power goes off again, and the metro council’s workers struggled to keep up with repairs.”
He explained that spikes in demand after supply is restored result in power surges that damage municipal infrastructure.
Tshwane’s city power grid also suffered surges after load-shedding.
According to AMEU, municipalities struggle to restore power supply after scheduled load-shedding, which results in significant infrastructure damage.
This is because most municipalities are not sufficiently staffed to handle more than stage 2 load-shedding.
“It’s dangerous work, and the teams have to rest. In the end, there’s constant switching on and off, and the resources are far too few, which slows down the whole process,” Truluck explained.
Truluck added that heavy rains throughout South Africa aggravated issues last week.
Load-shedding is only expected to get worse in the future. According to energy analyst Mike Rossouw, Eskom’s problems are much worse than they are saying.
Rossouw is CEO of Energy Thought Leaders and previously served five years as an independent director of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
He stated that Eskom’s planned maintenance projects are impossible to complete with its current resources and that the best course of action would be for the utility to close its older power stations.
“They are only equipped to deal with 10% breakdowns. The breakdowns must be nearly 20% at the moment,” Rossouw said.
Rossouw explained that Eskom’s core problem is committing to a work schedule far beyond its workforce’s reach.
He argued that Eskom would need to shut down its older power stations to cut down its maintenance workload to address this.
The power utility could then use the resources from these power stations and “dedicate them to the bigger machine,” Rossouw said.
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