Durban – Eskom will be implementing Stage 2 load shedding today, Tuesday and Wednesday between 4pm and midnight. Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha says this is to help manage emergency generation reserves during the evenings.
“Eskom will publish a further update on Wednesday, or as soon as any further significant changes occur,” he said.
Mantshantsha said on Saturday, two generation units at Grootvlei as well as a unit each at C power station was taken off-line for repairs.
"We currently have 5 244MW on planned maintenance, while another 15 612MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. Load shedding is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns," Mantshantsha said.
Meanwhile, South Africa is not out of the load shedding woods just yet.
Last week, Eskom COO (chief operating officer) Jan Oberholzer, warned of more rolling black-outs adding that the state-owned company needs about R1 trillion to resolve the load-shedding crisis over the next 10 or more years. He said it would take another year to a year and a half to get out of the current crisis.
He said Eskom will retire nine out of its 13 coal-powered stations in the next decade and will rely on hybrid systems.
"We have to invest a trillion rand, and then we have to build at least 8.5000km of transmission lines, and we believe for this, we need to put aside R130bn to build this. So over and above the 8.5000km, we have to install about 12 sub stations," Oberholzer said.
IOL