Last week, South Africa experienced Stage 8 loadshedding without prior notice, and the situation could escalate as winter approaches.
On Thursday, 13 April 2023, during the evening peak, Eskom had only 23,771MW of energy available compared to the demand of 30,747MW. Consequently, it shed 7,072MW, as per its official daily energy generation update.
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As reported by TimesLive, A single stage of loadshedding requires Eskom to shed around 1,000MW of electricity, while Stage 6, which was enforced this week and yesterday, needs between 5,001MW and 6,000MW of energy to be shed. Stage 8 demands a cut of 7,001 to 8,000MW.
The power cut crisis emerged just weeks after the electricity minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, stated that he did not expect loadshedding to go beyond higher stages during winter, provided the current improvements continued and there was no extreme cold weather.
However, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena acknowledged that on Thursday, Eskom shed more than 6,000MW, which is the limit for Stage 6. She stated that over 1,353MW, equivalent to more than one stage of loadshedding, had been reduced through other means, such as lowering the power supply to large users.
‘We did not [implement stage 8 load-shedding] … basically we curtailed 1,353MW from those customers on load curtailment and reduced 5,719MW from all other customers, which made up the 7,072MW load,’ Mokwena said.
When asked if this didn’t amount to Stage 8 power cuts, Mokwena replied, ‘The load that was reduced, which is the appropriate terminology, is certainly above 6,000MW. However, we avoid using this term because it may confuse the public, and they may believe we are talking about load reduction that we usually implement to prevent equipment failure due to overload, rather than load-shedding.’
Mokwena further stated that it is customary for Eskom to request large customers who have agreed to load curtailments to reduce their load before Eskom enforces any stage of loadshedding.
According to energy specialist Lungile Mashele, ‘We experienced Stage 8 load-shedding. While Eskom may claim that they were not load-shedding, the manual load-shedding, along with interruptible load-shedding and virtual power stations, totaled more than 7,000MW.
‘This winter will become more challenging because we lack capacity. Eskom’s fleet is unreliable and frequently suffers from malfunctions,’ Mashele stated.
Koeberg nuclear station experiences a complete power outage as the only functional unit shuts down.
On Saturday, Eskom declared that it would revert to Stage 6 loadshedding until further notice after Koeberg power station’s unit 2 tripped.
According to Mokwena, the team is still diagnosing the issue, and as of early Saturday afternoon, the unit remained out. Unit 1 is undergoing long-term maintenance, refuelling, and steam generator replacement, and its return to service is now slated for August 6, which is later than the initial schedule.
The non-functioning units at Koeberg are supposed to generate approximately 920MW each, equating to over 1800MW of power not being supplied to the grid at present.
Koeberg’s project to extend its lifespan by 20 years is running 45 days behind schedule, which means that one of its units with a 920MW capacity will be offline throughout the winter. The scheduled outage for Unit 2 is set to begin in November.
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Picture: Murray Swart