Eskom to stagger ‘outages without resorting to load-shedding’ this weekend
Eskom said load-shedding should not be needed this weekend.
According to the bi-weekly System Status Bulletin‚ released on Thursday‚ the power utility “will once again embark on a massive plant maintenance drive this long-weekend in an effort to improve the performance and reliability”.
On Friday night‚ more than 2000MW will be taken offline during the off-peak period‚ and several units that are currently offline are expected back on-stream from Saturday.
“The aim is to stagger the planned outages without resorting to load-shedding‚” the statement read.
“Eskom will use its emergency reserves‚ namely the open-cycle gas turbines and the pumped storage schemes to augment capacity while the maintenance drive is underway.”
Eskom has predicted these power supply and demand differentials:
- Friday‚ May 1: The capacity available to meet evening peak demand is 31 464MW‚ while demand is forecast at 28 719 MW.
Saturday‚ May 2: The capacity available to meet evening peak demand is 31 235MW‚ while demand is forecast at 28 854 MW.
Sunday‚ May 3: The capacity available to meet evening peak demand is 30 700MW‚ while demand is forecast at 29 964 MW.
Monday‚ May 4: The capacity available to meet evening peak demand is 31 233MW‚ while demand is forecast at 32 118 MW.
Tuesday‚ May 5: The capacity available to meet evening peak demand is 32 742MW‚ while demand is forecast at 32 345 MW.