Cape Town - While Eskom has announced that load shedding would move to Stage 5 until 5am on Monday, for today City of Cape Town customers will be on Stage 3.
Earlier on Saturday morning, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said that due to the breakdown of five generating units overnight and this morning, with a combined capacity of 2 400MW, it has necessitated the escalation of load shedding to Stage 5 from 10am this morning.
Mantshantsha said that this load shedding will be implemented until 5am on Monday, and that should any further breakdowns occur, higher stages of load shedding may be implemented at short notice.
“On Sunday, through a media briefing, Eskom will provide the outlook of the load shedding stages for the week ahead as the teams are working around the clock to return units to service,” Mantshantsha added.
A unit each at Kusile, Arnot and Camden, as well as two units at Duvha power station tripped.
While some generation units are anticipated to return to service, it is necessary to escalate the load shedding to stop the use of the emergency generation reserves and begin the replenishment thereof ahead of the week.
Mantshantsha explained that the emergency generation reserves have been depleted by extensive utilisation to limit the amount of load shedding over the past two weeks.
The City of Cape Town then took to social media where it announced that its customers will be on Stage 3 from 10am until 10pm, Stage 5 will then be in place until Monday.
The City said that unfortunately it can only offer limited protection due to “required statutory inspection of Steenbras plant”.
Urgent load-shedding update
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) September 17, 2022
Eskom moves to Stage 5 from 10:00.
City customers 17 September
Stage 3: 10:00 - 22:00
Stage 5: 22:00 until 05:00, Mon 19 September
Unfortunately, limited protection possible due to required statutory inspection of Steenbras plant. #CTInfo pic.twitter.com/1mTlOIEdXY
The City of Cape Town’s spare generation capacity depends on how much power the City can pump through its Steenbras Hydro Pump Station to replenish power reserves overnight.
“At night, if there is no load shedding, we typically pump to replenish power reserves to assist customers the next day.
“It’s a tough choice about when in the day we apply reserves (day or night) to limit the impact of load shedding on customers and livelihoods.
“It’s simply impossible to pump to replenish power reserves and to load shed at the same time, which sometimes limits the contingency measures,” the City previously explained.
The City is typically able to protect its customers up to two stages of load shedding where it is possible, primarily through the use of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme.
Beverley van Reenen, Mayco Member for Energy, explained last month that it is important to ensure that the Steenbras plant is properly maintained and that “we invest in our energy infrastructure for reliable services.”
Meanwhile, the City is of Cape Town, is continuing to build on its programme of ending load shedding over time by focusing on energy diversification to enhance security of supply with the City’s own build projects, small-scale embedded generation programmes of buying excess power from qualifying customers, wheeling and independent power producer programmes.