Here’s The Cause Of Load Shedding This Time Around. On Wednesday, Eskom hit us with the load shedding line.
On Wednesday, Eskom was hit with the load shedding line. The power supply company says the reason of the Wednesday power restrictions is because a conveyor belt that provides the Medupi power station in Limpopo with coal broke down on Saturday. This halved the power station’s power output.
It was also stated that five electricity generating units cannot be employed because boiler tubes are leaking. The power utility has blamed the load shedding on the hold-up of the return to service of units that were organised on planned maintenance. It stated that it is suffering with restricted diesel supply. From Saturday, the power utility has employed pumped storage and open cycle gas turbines to a large point. These were used to replace the electricity shortfall. However, the levels of diesel and dams are lessening. The stage 2 load shedding has been applied from 9am, it will go on till 11pm.
2000MW of electricity will be shed on a rotational basis. In September, the power utility has stated that maintaining plants seldomly may trigger electricity outages. Jabu Mabuza, the Eskom chairperson and acting CEO, says, “Most of our power stations are in need of maintenance to improve reliability…we do our best to strike the right balance etween plant maintenance and keeping the lights on.” The last time there was load shedding in South Africa was in March, due to a cyclone in Mozambique which impacted power imports from the nation.
by Alexandra Ramaite
