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Eskom’s commitment to “keep the lights on”

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There will be no load shedding for the first half of the day as Eskom currently has enough electricity generating capacity to meet demand, the power utility said on Monday.

Eskom has managed to limit load shedding to just over four hours in the past seven days as it continued its maintenance festival for the second consecutive long weekend.

“In the past seven days (168 hours), Eskom has only had to load shed for four hours and 31 minutes,” Eskom said in a statement.

Eskom implemented stage 1 load shedding at 17:00 on Sunday for the first time the weekend to accommodate maintenance.

Because of maintenance, the system will not be able to meet 1 000 MW of demand, it said on Sunday. Load shedding ended at 19:50.

On Monday, Eskom said the power system is stable but is expected to be constrained during the evening peak period (17:00 – 21:00). It will alert the public should the need for evening load shedding arise, it said.

Eskom said it performed even more planned maintenance over the past long-weekend, surpassing the first phase of its weekend maintenance festival.

“(We) were able to perform maintenance on 2 608 MW of generating plant. The maintenance team also returned 2 304 MW of generating capacity back to service over this period.

“This is an improvement from last weekend’s maintenance festival where technicians carried out planned maintenance on 2 303 MW of our generating plant, returning 1 453 MW back to service over that period.”

The generating units that were taken out for scheduled maintenance the long-weekend included Duvha Unit 2 (575 MW), Hendrina Unit 6 (190 MW), Komati Unit 9 (114 MW), Kriel Unit 6 (475 MW), Majuba Unit 6 (669 MW) and Tutuka Unit 4 (585 MW).

The units that have been returned back online are Duvha Unit 2 (575 MW), Majuba Unit 6 (669 MW), Kriel Unit 5 (475MW) and Tutuka Unit 4 (585 MW).

Eskom said it plans to continue the maintenance drive to close in on the backlog that has accumulated over the years due to the commitment to “keep the lights on”.

Acting CEO Brian Molefe has appealed to electricity users “once more to continue using electricity sparingly to allow us enough room to continue with the requisite maintenance so that in the long run our power stations can perform more efficiently”.

According to Eskom it needs a minimum of 3 000 MW and maximum of 5 000 MW buffer either through supply- or demand-side options to close the maintenance backlog and avoid load shedding.

Residential customers can make the biggest difference as demand increases mainly in the evenings.

Fin24

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.