Johannesburg - Just a day after Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa warned that if generation units continue to deteriorate, the risk of total failure is high, today Eskom announced that another unit has failed.
Ramokgopa said this is why Eskom has ramped up planned maintenance, citing that this will result in increased generating capacity, which means the level of load shedding will be reduced.
Last week, Eskom plunged the country into stage 6 load shedding, which prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to say South Africans must see the stage in a positive light.
Ramokgopa briefed the media on Sunday to give an update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan.
‘’We ramped up planned maintenance, and we are reaching approximately about 6000 megawatt. We then removed an additional 3500 megawatt from the grid, and this is us controlling that exercise because it is planned, and we are able to execute at the rate that we think is desirable,’’ said Ramokgopa.
He said there are choices when they make these determinations in relation to planned maintenance.
‘’The choices are as follows: the first one is to continue with the dispersion of the winter period, ensure that there is a significant reduction in the planned maintenance, and as we do that, the upside is that we are going to get a significant amount of generating capacity. With that capacity available and generation going down, we are going to get to a situation to significantly reduce the levels of load shedding,’’ said Ramaokgopa.
This morning, power utility Eskom confirmed stage 4 load shedding.
‘’Due to the failure of generating units at Arnot, Duvha, and Grootvlei power stations, as well as the delay in returning generating units to service, stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 12:00 until further notice,’’ said Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena.
She said Eskom will publish another update should any significant changes occur.
Chairperson of the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), Sicelo Xulu, said the briefing by Ramokgopa painted a better but still concerning picture of the state of the Eskom fleet.
‘’The focus was again on the Eskom coal fleet, and not much was mentioned around the implementation of the energy action plan in general. Ramokgopa mentioned the government’s takeover of the Eskom debt for Eskom to use their balance sheet to fix the coal fleet was part of the energy action plan. He also mentioned that they have made some resources available from the facility made available by the private sector, but he did not elaborate on this. He did not give much information on new generation capacity apart from mentioning it in passing. The 100 megawatts secured from Mozambique are still going through Eskom governance processes,’’ said Xulu.
He said in the update regarding the fixing of the coal fleet, the minister mentioned the imminent return to service of units at Duvha, Camden, and Hendrina.
‘’This will further increase available capacity. It is, therefore, expected that stages of load shedding will reduce this coming week. The minister reiterated the return of three units at Kusile power station that would add about 3000 megawatts by December as being on the critical path of stopping load shedding, with one unit coming back to service by October. He also mentioned that Eskom has ramped up planned maintenance to 5474 megawatts,’’ he said.
Xulu said the quality of the workmanship of this planned maintenance and the return to service on time of this capacity are also critical.
‘’The biggest challenge is still the partial load losses and the unplanned capacity loss factor, which is still very high. It is becoming apparent that Eskom is struggling to get the unplanned capacity loss factor below 15000 megawatts and maintain it below 15000 megawatts. There are a large number of units constantly operating at risk. According to the minister, compliance with environmental legislation, specifically emissions standards, continues to be a challenge and is contributing to partial load losses,’’ he said.
The Star