Eskom: expect the unexpected Power utility Eskom says there are no power cuts expected this morning although the electricity grid was constrained. “The system is constrained. We expect some of the generating units back during the day, however should anything unexpected happen we will go into load shedding,” Eskom’s media desk said. The power utility implemented stage one of load shedding on January 9 due to high electricity demand and the unavailability of some of its generating units. Stage one allows for up to 1 000MW of the national load to be shed, stage two for up to 2 000MW, and stage three for up to 4 000MW. On Thursday, Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona said that the government shared responsibility with Eskom for the power problems gripping the country. Read: Eskom: It’s load-shedding or die “The government co-owns the problem because some of the factors that led us into the situation have to do with policy,” he told reporters. This included electricity pricing set by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. Matona reiterated that the country’s power supply would remain severely constrained in the coming months while Eskom dealt with its maintenance backlog. He said maintenance had been neglected in recent years and at times was deferred to keep the lights on. In February 900 megawatts would be taken off the grid when one of Koeberg nuclear power station’s units would undergo maintenance. - Sapa
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 11:44:50 +0000
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