Load shedding risk remains high

“There is a shortage of generation capacity due to units that are currently out of service due to planned and unplanned maintenance,” Eskom’s media desk said.

“The focus is on returning the units that are on unplanned maintenance back online in order to increase available capacity.”

Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality (EMM) spokesperson Themba Gadebe explained how the load shedding schedules were implemented in relation to the three different load shedding stages,Alberton Rekord reported.

Stage 1:

This stage is implemented when Eskom requests load shedding that ranges from 10MW to 300MW.

“In this stage, areas to be affected are divided into two equal load sizes to accommodate Eskom load-reduction needs. If the EMM schedule has eight areas in a block to be affected, only four of the eight areas may be affected on day one, and the other remaining four areas will be affected on day two,” said Gadebe.

Stage 2:

When Stage 2 load shedding is implemented, the load shedding schedules will be implemented in full.

“If there are eight areas in a block to be affected, all eight areas will be affected,” said Gadebe.

Stage 3:

The stage is implemented when Eskom’s grid is under severe pressure.

“Stage 3 is completely out of EMM control and is implemented by Eskom to protect the national grid from collapsing and avoid a blackout. Due to the sudden and unplanned loss of generation capacity from Eskom, the municipality seldom receives an early notification that Stage 3 will be implemented. On average, EMM receives 10 minutes’ notification that Stage 3 will be implemented, and at times no notification is received, depending on the emergency of the situation,” said Gadebe.

Shrish Hargoon (28) wrote a tongue-in-cheek song about load shedding, Germiston City Newsreported.

The song is entitled Hours Of Darkness.

Hargoon said: “Load shedding, like any normal process, started off as a nightmare, as you are not accustomed to it. But eventually everything falls into place”.

– Caxton News Service