South Africa’s power utility firm Eskom has warned that it may have to implement load shedding at short notice after experiencing breakdowns at its power stations.
Urging the public to use electricity sparingly, Eskom in a statement said the power system was “severely constrained”.
The country last week experienced week-long outages after Eskom implemented load shedding.
While load shedding had not been implemented, it warned that “load shedding may be required at short notice should any further generation breakdowns occur, or should some of the generating units not return to service as expected”.
Over the past 24 hours, Eskom teams returned a generation unit each at Camden, Kendal and Medupi power stations.
“Over the same period, two generation units, one at Arnot and another at Hendrina, tripped while a unit at Arnot and Lethabo were forced to shutdown.”
Eskom said total breakdowns amounted to 15 852 while planned maintenance was 4 036 of capacity.
The utility reminded customers and the public that load shedding was implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system.
“We would like again to apologise for the inconvenience cause to the people of South Africa by the constraints.
“Eskom requests the public to continue using electricity sparingly and will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system,” it said, Total outages currently stand at 15,852 MW, while planned maintenance is 4,036 MW of capacity.
South Africa moved to Phase 4 of the load shedding last week after the latest round of blackouts, with professional services firm PwC estimating that the outages will have a significant impact on the country’s economy and directly result in 350,000 loss of jobs.
Energy Thought Leader CEO Mike Rossouw called Eskom’s situation dire, pushing South Africa past the tipping point.
