Following a week of escalated rolling blackouts, state-owned Eskom warned that, in all likelihood, loadshedding may return on Monday..
Loadshedding expected to return this week
This is despite assertions made by the national electricity provider’s chief executive Andre de Ruyter in last week’s loadsheddingf forecast that rotational power outages would not be implemented this week.
On Monday, the power utility warned the public to reduce electricity usage, noting that “any further losses to generation capacity would force the implementation of loadshedding at very short notice.”
“The loss of multiple generators over the weekend, as well as delays in returning some generation units to service, has made for a very constrained power system this afternoon,” Eskom wrote in a statement.
It seems, the return of loadshedding is contingent on whether technicians will be able to reconnect a number of faulty generation units at Marimba, Duvha and Arnot power stations to the grid before evening peak.
Until then, the power utility noted, heavy reliance will be placed on emergency reserves “to meet demand tonight.” However, this will not be a sustainable alternative, since in April 2022 alone, Eskom has burned through more than R626 million of diesel.
The national electricity provider confirmed that as of Monday, there were 4 533MW of power out on planned maintenance, “while another 13 601MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”
Considering the current rate of unavailable capacity due to breakdowns, Eskom may implement stage 2 loadshedding at short notice.
“We will promptly inform the public should there be any significant developments,” the utility noted.