Cape Town - Premier Alan Winde has spoken of his “grave concerns” with regard to delays in refurbishments at the Koeberg nuclear power plant which he said were running critically behind schedule.
Koeberg was to have been decommissioned in July 2024, however, its lifespan is being extended to help alleviate rolling blackouts.
In its May operational performance update, Eskom said it was working towards the return of service of Koeberg’s Unit 1 by September, with maintenance work on Unit 2 expected to start in October.
However, there are now concerns that the closure of these two units might overlap, which would result in another 920MW of generation capacity off the grid.
Winde echoed concerns expressed by Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who said on Monday that the situation at Koeberg was so worrying that he would visit the station this week as a matter of “urgency”.
Winde said the delays were deeply worrying for all Western Cape residents.
He asked the minister to “do all he can to establish what exactly is holding up the process, what is required to expedite the work and to take South Africans into his confidence and give an honest account of what has caused these worrying delays.
“More importantly, we need to know what steps are being taken to protect our energy supply due to these delays.”
Meanwhile, Eskom said yesterday afternoon (Weds) that because of the breakdowns of eight generating units on Tuesday evening, Stage 4 load shedding would be implemented until 5am this morning (Thursday).
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokoena said varying stages of load shedding would be implemented until Saturday evening.
The announcement came barely two days after the power utility announced further reduction in the intensity of load shedding as generation capacity had improved.
On Wednesday, Mokoena said that since Tuesday evening, two generating units at the Grootvlei power station had been returned to service.
“However, the delay in returning a generating unit each at Kendal, Kriel and Matla, and two generating units at Tutuka power stations, to service has contributed to the current capacity constraints.”
Meanwhile, the SA Weather Service expects another cold front across the country towards the end of this week, which could push electricity demand higher and add strain on the generation system.