Breakdown of more units pushes Eskom to continuous stage 2 load-shedding

The breakdown of six generating units at five power stations has forced Eskom to implement continuous stage 2 load-shedding from Friday afternoon until further notice.

Earlier in the week, Eskom only implemented stage 2 load-shedding from 4pm until 5am.

Eskom said the continuous stage 2 load-shedding was also caused by the need to conserve emergency generation reserves, as well as the delay in returning to service of several generating units.

“A generating unit each at Duvha, Grootvlei, Hendrina, Majuba and two units at Arnot power station were taken offline for repairs over the past 24 hours.

“The delay in returning to service two generating units at Camden and one unit each at Arnot and Duvha power stations contributed to the capacity constraints,” the power utility said.

A generating unit each at Kriel and Matla power stations were returned to service during this period.

Eskom said due to the depletion of the budget to acquire diesel for the open cycle gas turbines, it has been forced to strictly conserve the fuel for the worst of emergencies.

“We currently have 4,423MW on planned maintenance, while another 16,708MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”

The power utility said the imminent refuelling and maintenance outage, as well as the long-term operation project of unit 1 of the Koeberg nuclear power station, together with the October chimney failure that forced three generation units offline at Kusile power station, will further reduce available generation capacity and significantly increase the occurrence of load-shedding during the next six to 12 months.

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