- Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Pravin Gordhan convened an urgent meeting with the Eskom’s executive management yesterday.
- Yesterday Eskom escalated from stage 2 to stage 4 loadshedding yesterday because a further seven generating units tripped within a period of five hours.
- Eskom will implement Stage 3 rotational loadshedding from 08h00 today and is likely to continue until 23h00.
Yesterday the Board of Eskom today convened an urgent meeting with the company’s executive management and the Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Pravin Gordhan, following the unexpected introduction of load shedding from this past Sunday.
The initial schedule was to implement stage 2 load shedding on Monday as a result of generation shortages over the weekend and constraints in diesel supply. However, earlier today, Eskom implemented stage 4 load shedding.
The escalation from stage 2 to stage 4 load shedding was caused by a further seven generating units that tripped within a period of five hours. This report on the causes, including all the challenges of the new and old power stations, was much of the deliberations between the Board, management and the Department of Public Enterprises in today’s meeting that lasted for over to six hours.
By yesterday this evening, four units had returned to service and it is expected that the remaining three will be back to service by tomorrow morning. We will have a systems- and operations update within the next 24 hours.
The Board is also urgently embarking on an in-depth audit of the entire system to ensure that every technical problem is understood at a granular level and to avoid unexpected crises as seen today.
Eskom will implement Stage 3 rotational loadshedding from 08h00 today and is likely to continue until 23h00. Despite the generating units returning to service as planned, the emergency reserves (diesel and water) are still very low.
Stage 3 calls for 3000MW to be rotationally loadshed nationally at a given period. Loadshedding is conducted rotationally as a measure of last resort to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout.
Eskom continues to appeal to residents and businesses to use electricity sparingly during this period to assist in reducing demand.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
Source: Eskom Media Desk
