Eskom’s winter plan to minimise loadshedding requires South Africans to use electricity efficiently
8 Monday 2019
With colder weather conditions expected across the country and the demand of electricity projected to increase, the power system is forecasted to be tight for this week. The winter plan indicates a higher demand, with three days being extremely tight, with a high risk of loadshedding. South Africans can make a huge difference by rallying towards the common cause of using electricity efficiently, having the collective potential of reducing demand by up to 500 MW and saving the equivalent of 1 unit at a power station.
Last week, Eskom indicated that it now has a better understanding of root causes of breakdowns following work done by its technical review team and has a reliable maintenance plan for its plant, with maintenance being prioritised over this period.
Phakamani Hadebe, the Group Chief Executive of Eskom says, “We have done an extensive winter plan and review of our power system and identified the problems. While the plan gives us confidence that we may go through winter with no or limited loadshedding, we are mindful of the potential of risks on a very tight power system which may result in shifts on the power system and which could result in loadshedding. We have mapped out scenarios that show that we will implement loadshedding in cases where unplanned breakdowns increase to more than 9 500 MW, delays in returning units from planned maintenance or in cases of unanticipated disruptive events.”
According to the winter plan for last week, three days were significantly tight with high risk of loadshedding. Eskom was successful in keeping the lights on as a result of improved performance of commercial units which resulted in unplanned breakdown of around 8500 MW. Non-commercial units between Medupi and Kusile also contributed about 1 200 MW.