Since Eskom continues to encounter power capacity issues, the power provider will implement Stages 3 and 4 load shedding this weekend, according to acting general manager Thomas Conradie.
“We are forced to continue applying the Stage 4 load shedding over this weekend in the same pattern as what we have previously done. This is because we need to rebuild our reserves and recover some of our coal stock levels due to heavy rains as well as a plant problem on one of the conveyer belts” Conradie said.
At a virtual media briefing on Friday, he said that severe rain, particularly from the east, has affected power stations in Mpumalanga and the Vaal to the east.
“In the past three years we have been working on improving what is called rain readiness to ensure that we can best deal with the rain situation. It helps to have adequate coal reserves for shorter spells of very heavy rains.
“During long rainfall spells, all your dry and seasoned piles become wet in the process, yet we are doing well in managing the situation. It did however cause us to see increases in partial load losses, where generating units are on load but we need to run them at lower loads,” he said.
Due to this, Eskom has recorded a total unplanned plant outage of approximately 17,000 Megawatts (MW), necessitating the implementation of Stage 3 loadshedding during off-peak hours and an increase to Stage 4 loadshedding from 4pm to 5am during the evening peak.
“We have had a number of units that have returned to service and we are still planning to return another Duvha Power Station in Mpumalanga today, which has been out for a considerable time due to a forced outage as well as Lethabo 4 Power Station in the Free State, which was also out due to an outage.
“This will give some relief. The situation is such that we have been dispatching diesel a lot during this past week and equally using our pump storage, although the pump storage is looking healthier than what we have seen in the past,” Conradie said.
After severe rains, Eskom has stated that it must rebuild its reserves and regain certain coal stock levels.
“With that in mind, we will therefore be forced to apply Stage 3 and Stage 4 load shedding into this weekend and currently projected for Monday, where we see normally a marked increase in demand as we approach the new work week,” he said.
Regarding diesel reserves, the utility has adequate off-site storage and diesel availability.
“Our onsite levels of diesel is quite low so we need to utilise the time over the weekend to transfer diesel from the offsite storage to the onsite storage in order to be well set up for the coming week.
“In terms of the longer term planning, we are still running with a significant number of units at risk. Currently we have about 4 700 MW of plant running with risk, meaning they can at any stage let us down and that’s unfortunately the levels of unreliability and unreadability that we are sitting with,” Conradie said.
Eskom anticipates one unit to return on Saturday, two units on Sunday, and four units for Monday’s additional demand.
“In the coming weeks and until March, there are a number of units that need to return from planned and forced outages so we aim to return seven generating units of different sizes over the next couple of weeks and into March.”
“We are still very much in the outage season, so a lot of work will be done on units and this will continue right through March,” he said.
Eskom will boost plant maintenance somewhat towards the end of March. This will also guarantee that Eskom’s equipment are in optimal condition as the nation approaches winter.
“In terms of the system, we are not where we want to be yet in terms of getting our total unavailability down, the 17 000 MW is too high.”