Load shedding: Dark weekend ahead – Here’s when the lights go off today

Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 11am on Wednesday, due to a shortage of generation capacity, Eskom announced this morning. 

This, the utility said, was due to the breakdowns of two more generating units that occurred during the night. 

Efforts to use emergency reserves have been in vain, as these have now been depleted and need to be replenished, Eskom explained. 

The latest bout of load shedding, which is scheduled until 5am on Monday, will be utilised to “replenish the emergency reserves”. 

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Eskom on Tuesday warned that any further loss of generation capacity will result in load shedding.

Unit woes 

Numerous generating unit breakdowns at various power stations have been experienced since the weekend.

Eskom said one unit at Kusile and another and Kendal power stations tripped. This, combined with the return of units at Kusile, Tutuka, Duvha, Lethabo and Grootvlei power stations has contributed to current supply constraints. 

Three generating units are however expected to return to service by Wednesday afternoon. 

Despite this, emergency generating reserves are still running dangerously low. 

Total breakdowns are at 14 994MW, with planned maintenance at 4 435MW capacity, with “reliability maintenance” continuing, Eskom said. 

“Eskom appeals to all South Africans to help limit the impact of load shedding by reducing the usage of electricity and to switch off non-essential items.” 

Long-term maintenance sacrifice

Last week, Eskom warned that planned and unplanned outages are expected to impact generation capacity in the future, and said maintenance has been sacrificed for too long, which has led to the power crisis.

One of the biggest offenders for Unplanned Capability Loss Factors (UCLF) is the Tutuka power station. The other two major offenders are Kendall and Duvha stations.

Financing repairs and planned maintenance is problematic, but the parastatal said it was working hard to source funds to repair ageing infrastructure.

Eskom Group Executive for Transmission Segomoco Scheppers said the majority of the coal power stations are operating past the midway of their operational life, at an average of 42 years, resulting in high levels of breakdowns.

“Major projects and outages undertaken this year will continue to exert pressure on the supply side, raising the risk of load shedding in the short term,” said Scheppers.

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Compiled by Nica Richards. Additional reporting by Narissa Subramoney.