Cape Town - City of Cape Town customers will be on Stage 1 load shedding after Eskom announced Stage 2 load shedding would be in effect from 5am on Wednesday morning.
After initially saying that load shedding would be extended for two days and would be implemented overnight, Eskom moved the rest of the country to Stage 2 load shedding due to further unit failures and continued delays to return units to service.
The power utility said that it had become necessary to further extend the implementation of Stage 2 load shedding continuously from this morning through to Friday at 5am.
“The extension of load shedding is caused by the failure of additional units and the continued shortage of generation capacity due to delays in returning to service three generating units at Camden Power Station and two generating units at Tutuka Power Station.
“Overnight, a generation unit each at Medupi, Matla, Kendal and Komati power stations failed while 240MW of power imports from Mozambique was interrupted, exacerbating the supply constraints,” Eskom said.
Eskom said that three generation units were returned to service at Matla, Grootvlei and Camden power stations but that they currently have 5379MW on planned maintenance, while another 14 827MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns.
“The extension of the load shedding is required to preserve the remaining emergency generation reserves in an attempt to limit the stage of load shedding. Eskom would like to inform the public that any further deterioration in generation capacity may require further load shedding,” they said.
The City of Cape Town thereafter announced that its customers would be Stage 1 for the rest of the day until 10pm, and thereafter Stage 2 would in place until 5am on Thursday.
The City provides updates on its load shedding schedule daily as it checks its generation capacity.
The City regrets to inform customers that Eskom has changed the load-shedding schedule for today at short notice.
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) April 13, 2022
City customers 13 April
Now until 22:00 - Stage 1
22:00 until 05:00 - Stage 2
Eskom customers are on Stage 2. #CTInfo pic.twitter.com/U5eBm53XBu
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.