Two units back online, says Eskom

File photo: Dean Hutton/Bloomberg.

File photo: Dean Hutton/Bloomberg.

Published Feb 13, 2015

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Cape Town - Eskom has predicted that the country’s weekend power demands will be met, resulting in no load shedding as two of its units were expected to come online on Thursday.

Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said 10 000MW of electricity had not been produced, but that this amount was being reduced as two units in Mpumalanga came online on Thursday.

“The units coming online will relieve pressure on the power grid,” he said, adding that even more units were expected to be brought online.

In recent weeks, load shedding has become a regular occurrence, with Eskom often sending out alerts of load shedding implemented for entire days.

“The prognosis this weekend will be better than the whole of this week.

“Lots of companies are closing for the weekend, so the demand on the power system is low. It is unlikely that load shedding will be implemented. There is still no guarantee but if all generators perform optimally, there will be no load shedding,” he said.

Phasiwe said the estimated demand for the weekend was 28 000MW, while Eskom would be able to supply 30 000MW.

“There are a number of generators out at this stage. We are working on getting them back on line to stabilise the grid. We want to quickly get them back in service.

“Some units have been out of service for more than three days,” he said.

He said once they were brought online, they would take a short time to be synchronised and only then would the pressure on the grid be relieved.

“The units will ramp up gradually but it will take some time. Our aim is to keep the lights on. In some situations, like on Wednesday in our efforts to keep the lights on, generators break down and as a result we had to implement load shedding to prevent a system collapse,” Phasiwe said.

He also stressed that load shedding was not avoided on Thursday because of the State of the Nation Address, but rather because two units came online.

Eskom provincial spokeswoman Jolene Henn said: “The Eskom power system remains constrained, meaning any extra load or faults in the system may necessitate the need to implement load shedding.”

Henn said the public would be kept informed if load shedding was to be implemented

“We realise that load shedding is causing frustration, but we want to assure the public that load shedding is a last resort,” she said.

For tips on how to save electricity, visit Eskom’s website at www.eskom.co.za.

Cape Times

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