Eskom changes load-shedding timetable
Update: At 06:05 on Wednesday morning, Eskom issued a brief statement announcing it would increase power cuts to stage 4 “until further notice” due to additional breakdowns.
Original article
Eskom has announced that it will not switch to continuous stage 2 load-shedding from today as previously intended.
Instead it will continue to implement stage 3 load-shedding during the evening peaks and early mornings, followed by stage 2 load-shedding during the day.
“Stage 3 load-shedding will be implemented this afternoon at 16:00–05:00 tomorrow morning and on Wednesday afternoon at the same time,” Eskom announced.
“Stage 2 load-shedding will continue being implemented at 05:00 – 16:00 daily until further notice.”
The schedule may be summarised as follows:
- 16:00 – 05:00 — Stage 3
- 05:00 – 16:00 — Stage 2
Eskom said a generating unit each at Camden and Kendal power stations were taken offline for repairs over the past 24 hours.
“The delay in returning to service a generating unit each at Arnot, Kriel and Matla power stations has contributed to the capacity constraints,” it said.
“A generating unit each at Arnot, Duvha, Grootvlei, Kendal, Kriel, Lethabo, and two units at Majuba power stations were returned to service during this period.”
Eskom has 4,394MW on scheduled maintenance, while another 16,880MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
“Load-shedding is being implemented due to a high number of breakdowns and the requirement to preserve the remaining emergency generation reserves while creating space to replenish the dam levels at the pumped storage schemes,” stated Eskom.
“As previously communicated, due to the depletion of the budget to acquire diesel for the open cycle gas turbines, Eskom has been forced to strictly conserve the remainder of the fuel reserves to protect against further unplanned outages.”
The chimney failure at Kusile, and scheduled refuelling and refurbishment of Koeberg unit 1 starting this week also contribute to the capacity shortage.
“[These] will further reduce available generation capacity and significantly increase the occurrence of load-shedding during the next 6 –12 months,” Eskom said.
“Eskom requests the public to exercise patience and tolerance during this difficult period.”
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