Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has cautioned the country to brace for more and potentially higher levels of loadshedding as Eskom increases maintenance on its power units.
This came as Eskom rolled out stages 5 and 4 over the weekend. The planned maintenance is part of Eskom’s strategy to address the electricity supply-demand gap during the winter season.
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‘The current intensity of loadshedding as we are seeing it now is primarily on the back of us ramping up on planned outages,’ Ramokgopa said on Saturday while updating the media on the progress made regarding the energy action plan (EAP).
The outages have reduced available generation capacity, increasing the likelihood of more severe loadshedding.
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Ramokgopa said that while some of Eskom’s generating units would be temporarily shut down for maintenance, this was a short-term measure to ensure they return online in good condition and could generate electricity for an extended period.
The minister emphasised that these are controlled-intensity loadshedding events designed to facilitate essential machine repairs.
Additionally, Ramokgopa mentioned that the unplanned capability loss factor (UCLF), which accounts for units that frequently trip offline unexpectedly, has decreased due to planned outages.
‘We’ll watch out that loadshedding doesn’t reach alarming levels. To avoid the issue that has plagued us previously, we are acting appropriately,’ added Ramokgopa.
Eskom aims to keep the UCLF below 15 000MW to improve available capacity.
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Picture: @GovernmentZA / Twitter