Eskom warns of more load shedding for the week ahead

Picture Bongani Mbatha /African News Agency (ANA)

Picture Bongani Mbatha /African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jan 17, 2021

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DURBAN - Consumers can expect load shedding to continue, after Eskom announced that some generation units have yet to return to service.

In a statement on Sunday, Eskom said load shedding will be reduced to Stage 1 from 11pm tonight until 5am tomorrow morning, and then Stage 2 thereafter.

"Regrettably, as the return to service of some generation units has been delayed, as well as the need to manage the emergency generation reserves and identified risks to the power systems, Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 5am tomorrow morning," Eskom said.

It said the system remains constrained and vulnerable and a further update on the power situation will be given tomorrow.

Eskom said the return to service of two generation units at the Kusile power station that were not available last week has been delayed to due difficulties in restarting the units, which are now expected to return to service tomorrow.

"Over the past 24 hours, Eskom teams were able return a generation unit each at the Kriel, Grootvlei and Duvha power stations to service," Eskom said.

It said despite stringent measures to manage the impact of the second wave of the pandemic on the operations, they were experiencing some impact on operations, including suppliers.

At the Medupi power station, there were 48 positive cases out of a pool of 75 contractors, which has negatively affected Eskom's ability to execute work as planned.

"We currently have 6 384MW on planned maintenance, while other 13 181MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned maintenance, breakdowns and the outage delays mentioned above," Eskom said.

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