Failing power generating units and depleted reserves continue to make Eskom’s job difficult, this time forcing the state-owned power utility to go back to stage-six loadshedding.
The cash-strapped power entity announced early on Friday that stage-six rolling power cuts would be implemented until further notice. This after it lowered loadshedding to stage four on Thursday and said stage three would be come into effect on Sunday.
In a statement early on Friday, Eskom said: “Stage-six loadshedding was implemented. This was necessary due to the failure of eight generating units overnight and the excessive reliance on open-cycle gas turbines and pumped storage generation that is rapidly depleting these reserves.”
The entity said it would give a full power status update in due course.
South Africa is likely to experience prolonged stages of loadshedding for a foreseeable future after 1 000MW were removed from the grid on Saturday last week, following a move to take Koeburg Unit 1 offline. A further about 3 000MW was also taken offline due to breakdowns at Kusile and Medupi power stations.
According to Eskom’s outlook for 2023, the power utility needs to stabilise breakdowns below 13 000MW to stave off the worst of loadshedding, however, it has struggled to keep outages below 16 000MW, which is the worst case scenario in its game plan.
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