Eskom has attributed the blame of prolonged blackouts to the wet coal at some of its power stations due to heavy rains in the past few days.
Generation executive Philip Dukashe said the heavy rains had impacted some of the power utility’s units which had to be supported using fuel oil, noting that the coal sometimes loses the combustion when it gets wet.
“We’ve got problems with the flow of coal, these are the things that we’ve managed well in the first bout of rain. If the rain is consistent, then our ability to manage [the situation] becomes very difficult,” said Dukashe.
The power utility added that each unit at Hendrina (power station), Medupi, Tutuka, Arnot and two units at Camden power station had been returned to service.
During a media briefing on Tuesday, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said the company’s independent power procurement (IPP) plan needed to be ramped up.
He said: “We do believe that there are about 200 megawatts of capacity that can be added from existing IPPs, which they have available from time to time, they are contractually limited from feeding that into the grid. We would urge the IPP office to accelerate its efforts to enable the contracts to be amended.”
De Ruyter further said the eight-year delay has caused a significant delay in new capacity being added to the grid. The power utility said later in the day that stage four of loadshedding would continue until Friday morning.
Also read: Eskom escalates blackouts to stage 4
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