Eskom has ramped up the use of its emergency generation facilities since the weekend as it tries to balance reduced capacity from its coal-fired plants with increased demand amid a powerful cold front.
During peak demand on Monday, Eskom used 22 open-cycle and other diesel turbines, compared to just 10 on Sunday, according to updates on the utility’s Twitter feed. The last time the company reported using more than 20 turbines was on 22 May.
To preserve its emergency reserves, Eskom will maintain increased power outages until further notice, it said on Twitter on Tuesday. It will implement stage-4 load shedding, where it removes 4GW of electricity from the grid, from 2pm until 5am daily, and will cut 3GW from 5am until 2pm.
The US Trade and Development Agency announced a US$1.3-million grant to help fund technical assistance to assess the economic, technical, commercial and financial viability of using new technologies to improve South Africa’s transmission grid, Business Day reported.
The provision of the grant could potentially help leverage as much as $200-million in additional financing, the newspaper said, citing USTDA director Enoh Ebong.
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Eskom Debt Relief Bill (PDF) into law at the weekend, according to a parliamentary notice.
Read: Eskom workers to get 7% pay hike
The legislation enables Eskom to receive funding directly from the National Revenue Fund over the next three years in exchange for the government obtaining equity in the company. — Mpho Hlakudi, with Rene Vollgraaff and Paul Vecchiatto, (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP
