Despite a gradual warming in temperatures over South Africa following a powerful cold front that brought extreme cold to many parts of the country earlier this week, Eskom will continue to impose load shedding at stage 6 – equalling the worst cuts the utility has imposed.
“Stage-6 load shedding will continue to be implemented over the weekend to replenish emergency reserves and set a possible path for the reduction in stages of load shedding in the coming week,” Eskom said in a statement late on Thursday.
“The increase in the demand for electricity due to the cold weather, particularly on Monday and Tuesday, was anticipated. However, this demand exceeded what was forecasted,” it said.
Emergency reserves – mainly diesel-burning open-cycle gas turbines and pumped-water generation schemes – were used extensively on Monday and Tuesday to “buffer the effects of the cold weather”.
“Unfortunately, due to the failure of additional generation units since Sunday, the reserves have been depleted and can no longer buffer the lingering effects of the cold weather and make up for the lost generation capacity,” the utility said.
Breakdowns are currently at 17.7GW of generating capacity, while the generating capacity out of service for planned maintenance is 3.1GW.
“Eskom teams are working tirelessly to return generating units to service. It is anticipated that eight generating units will be returned to service in the next few days,” it said. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media