For years the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) has been claiming in its annual reports that it is underfunded, the writer says.
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The Minister of Electricity Kgosientso Ramokgopa has announced Stage 3 load shedding will be initiated this weekend.
Eskom’s Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane, said load shedding will start at 5pm on Friday evening and will run for the weekend.
According to Ramokgopa, load shedding has to be initiated to protect the integrity of Eskom's power generation system.
"Load shedding is an extraordinary occurrence and we want to put it behind us."
Bheki Nxumalo, Group Executive Generation, Eskom said that repairs on the units that have been gone down has started and the repairs will continue this weekend.
The media briefing follows a statement from Eskom on Friday morning where the power utility said there is a high risk of load shedding following months of uninterrupted power supply.
Eskom said that after more than 10 months of uninterrupted electricity supply, due to the success of the Generation Recovery Plan, there was a high risk of load shedding at short notice this weekend.
"This is a potentially temporary setback. Load shedding is largely behind us due to the structural improvements in our generation fleet," Marokane said.
"However, over the past seven days, we have experienced several breakdowns that require extended repair times. This has necessitated the use of all our emergency reserves, which now need to be replenished."
According to Marokane, they are closely monitoring the status of its current emergency reserves.
Marokane said up to Stage 4 load shedding may be implemented over the weekend.
Earlier this week, IOL reported that Eskom has burned through a massive amount of diesel in order to avoid load shedding in the past year.
State power utility Eskom has spent almost R75 billion on diesel in six years to power its open cycle gas turbines, which have helped prevent load shedding.
Image: RON AI, IOL
Recently, the state power utility surpassed more than 300 days without load shedding sponsored power cuts. Eskom has spent close to R10 billion on diesel since March, helping it keep the lights on.
In the past six years, the power utility has spent over R75 billion and was counting on diesel to power its Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGTs). OCGTs are power stations that use diesel as their primary resource.
Eskom noted that these are limited fuel sources, and come at a great expense, and therefore the utilisation is monitored very closely.
Earlier this week, Matthew Cruise, an energy expert at Forest Energy Solutions claims Eskom has avoided numerous power cuts in January thanks to the use of diesel.
Cruise told Cape Talk that Eskom was not as “stable” as it would like South Africans to believe and there were a few cases where the utility was close to Stage 3 load shedding in January.
“We’ve been 300 days without load shedding. Yes, that is the case, but they’ve been doing everything in their power and spending as much diesel as they can to keep that narrative alive,” he explained.
IOL
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