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South Africans are once again forced to work around loadshedding, indicating that the power utility’s woes are far from over.
As previously anticipated, Andre de Ruyter, Eskom’s Chief Executive, says load shedding Stage 2 will likely continue throughout the weekend. However, some generating units have or are expected to return to service soonest.
On Thursday, 3 February 2022, during a media briefing, De Ruyter discussed the power system’s challenges following the announcement of loadshedding.
Currently, Eskom is dealing with partial load losses of at least 12 902MW, down from 14 994MW on Wednesday.
Explaining what can only be described as a catch 22, De Ruyter said that the power utility regained some units but lost some overnight.
Moreover, he pointed out that Matla Power Station Unit 5 and Kendal Power Station Unit 5 have returned to service. The current capacity of the Kusile Power Station is 333 MW.
“There are plans in place to return more units to service. So, at this point in time, our recovery is as anticipated. However, we have to point out that there is still the possibility that we may lose further units and therefore at this point in time…we will maintain Stage 2 load shedding until 5am Monday morning,” he said.
According to the CEO, Unit 3 of Camden Power Station and Unit 6 of Medupi Power Station are scheduled to shut down. He also reported trips at Unit 4 of Thuthuka Power Station and a forced shutdown of Unit 2 of Arnot Power Station.
De Ruyter stated that the power utility is replenishing its dams and diesel stocks to restock the emergency generating reserves that have been depleted since the weekend.
“We will manage our dam levels over the weekend and replenish our upper dams so that will give us the reserve capacity that we require from a pump storage perspective. We have managed to improve the stockholding of our diesel at our open cycle gas turbine plants at Ankerlig Power Station as well as at Gourikwa Power Station. Gourikwa is sitting currently at 84% and Ankerlig at 59%.”
However, on Wednesday, 2 February 2022, Eskom was at 30% at Ankerlig, a critical power station, in terms of providing the power utility with the necessary reserve buffer capacity in the event of a major system outage.
Furthermore, Jan Oberholzer, Eskom’s Chief Operations Officer, explained that Eskom is aware of the disruptions caused by load shedding and is not implemented arbitrarily.
“It is not that we are just buying ourselves time by saying that we will carry on with the current load shedding. We really apply our minds and look at what the demand is, where we find ourselves and what the status of our emergency [reserves] is. This is why we made the decision that we have to implement load shedding.”
Additionally, he said, “we are obviously very cognisant of the impact of load shedding to the economy of the country, and whenever we believe that it’s safe enough to lift load shedding, we will do so.”
He added that the power utility is looking at alternative ways of implementing load shedding but emphasised that these are tentative plans.
“It may also be that going forward we will lift load shedding perhaps during the day and implement it say between 9 at night until 5 in the morning. So it all depends on the availability of capacity as well as the level of our emergencies,” said Oberholzer.
Despite Eskom’s senior officials’ feedback, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Ghaleb Cachalia, has stated that the DA will write to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, requesting an urgent Commission of Inquiry into Eskom and the issue of electricity generation and supply.
Cachalia says, “Eskom this week announced Stage 2 rolling blackouts. This follows on the utility’s CEO, Andre de Ruyter, warning that the road to operational recovery and sustainability will be long and hard. It also comes after the country exited one of its most intensive periods of loadshedding in November last year.”
He notes that De Ruyter promised greater transparency in the future regarding the state and performance of the power system, given the likelihood that disruption risk will persist for the next three to four years.
Cachalia emphasised that in light of these ongoing challenges – financial, operational, and criminal – all of which have an unconscionable impact on lives, livelihoods, businesses, and the general state of the economy, it is time to take serious action.
“The time has come to rip the band aid off this festering sore and implement the recommendations of tried and trusted experts – not cadre deployees or political appointments. Any failure to act with urgency will continue to imperil the very lifeblood of the economy,” he concludes.
With loadshedding going nowhere soon, Eskom even looking at new ways to make it a “functional” part of our lives, what are your thoughts?
You know what to do, Newcastillian; share your views in the comment section below.
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I am not an electrician but this load shedding is killing us old people