Johannesburg – Eskom has announced that Stage 2 load shedding will continue to Saturday due to more plant failures and maintenance backlog.
The power utility was also still dealing with a massive system maintenance backlog.
The power utility announced the implementation of load shedding this week due to a breakdown of Medupi Unit 3 on Monday afternoon.
Chief Operating Officer at Eskom Jan Oberholzer told the media during a Tuesday briefing that they expect three units to return to service by the end of Tuesday and an additional four units by the weekend.
“But, we all know the unpredictability of the generators,” he said.
Oberholzer said that due to the unpredictability, Eskom will continue with Stage 2 load shedding up until Saturday.
Oberholzer said since Monday morning, units at the Matla, Kendal, Matimba, Kusile and Grootvlei power stations tripped while a unit each at Arnot and Hendrina power stations were forced to shut down.
He said the total loss by 4pm on Monday was 4500 MegaWatts.
“It is hard to believe, but it is true,” he said.
“This, in addition to other units that had tripped during the weekend, reduced available generation capacity, forcing Eskom to rely heavily on emergency generation reserves to keep the lights on,” it said.
Oberholzer said its system was fully constrained, and they were running the system with units that were at risk.
“It is unreliable because we haven’t had the chance to do maintenance and do it properly. Only one unit was where there were issues where we could have done better, and we will see if there will be any consequence management,” he added.
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