Cape Town - Eskom has appealed to the public to use electricity sparingly after one of its two reactors at the Koeberg nuclear plant went down on Thursday.
“The power system is extremely tight at present, particularly during the evening peak hours between 6pm and 9pm. We appeal to all customers to reduce their electricity usage and to switch off all non-essential appliances over the peak period,” it said.
It is unclear what happened but an official, who said he could not be named, said they had lost 900 MW of power. He said they were investigating the electrical fault.
Koeberg provides 6 percent of South Africa’s power and has been operating since 1984 with a capacity of 1 800 MW.
In 2006 the city and some parts of the Western Cape experienced blackouts following damage to one of the reactors at Koeberg. But Eskom said there wouldn’t be any power cuts this time. It was working to ensure the unit was running as soon as possible.
“The reduced supply from Koeberg has put added strain on a power system which was already tight because of reduced imports from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique and volatile plant performance,” read an Eskom statement.
An Eskom transmission line from the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric scheme in Mozambique was damaged by flooding of the Limpopo River last month.
Its capacity of 1 300 MW has been reduced to 650 MW.
Eskom said it was working on restoring the line. “The performance of Eskom’s generation fleet has been volatile, reflecting the fact that we do not have enough space to achieve the sustained levels of planned maintenance which are needed to improve the reliability of the power.
“We urge all South Africans to partner with us to save 10 percent of their electricity usage, especially during the evening peak.
“This will make it significantly easier to manage the power system during this challenging time, while also enabling us to do planned maintenance to ensure the reliability of our plant.”
Cape Times