Cape Town - South Africans have been urged to brace themselves for more rolling blackouts this week. Eskom has announced that the power system will be severely constrained this coming week due to the unavailability of eight generation units, because of breakdowns or delays in the maintenance programme.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said: “While some of the units will be returned to service this evening (Sunday) and tomorrow, the system is expected to remain severely constrained for the rest of the week.
“The return to service of a generation unit at the Duvha and Medupi power stations has been delayed. Generation units at Tutuka, Majuba, Komati, Kendal, and two units at Hendrina have been shut down.”
Eskom started implementing load shedding stage 2 on Thursday as it battled with continued unit breakdowns.
Mantshantsha said: “We want to urge the public as the week begins to again bear in mind to reduce electricity usage and help us keep the lights on. We are doing everything we can to return as many of these units to service, however, the infrastructure and supply system remains constrained for the coming week.”
City teams are on high alert and monitoring the situation. Mayco member for energy and climate change Phindile Maxiti said: “It is simply shocking that this situation continues amid the dire state of the economy and a pandemic.
“As a City government, we are doing all we can to put in place measures to move away from our sole reliance on Eskom and enable better and cleaner security of supply for our customers despite the odds, but it will not happen immediately. In the meantime we require answers from Eskom and the national government on why we are again in this situation.
“We ask our residents and customers to please reduce their energy usage and to please be patient when logging service requests as the impact of the storm and load-shedding will likely affect the time that it takes to resolve a service request.”
Cape Argus