.jpg?itok=Avxp0nH5 "Justina Wamae explains her delayed congratulatory message to Ruto")
Electricity company Eskom has warned that it may be necessary to implement load shedding in the short term following a loss of production capacity and slow return of production units.
The group said in a statement on Tuesday (Aug. 2) that if load shedding were to be implemented, it would take place in Phase 2 during the evening rush hours of 4pm and midnight. This could happen in the next three days, it said.
“The delays in recommissioning a production unit at the Arnot, Kusile and Koeberg power plants, as well as the shutdown of a production unit at Medupi, Hendrina, Camden and two units at the Majuba power plants, have increased capacity constraints. aggravated. ,” it said.
Some generating units at other power plants are expected to return to service in the coming days, it said.
“Should there be a further loss of production capacity in the next three days – or if the units do not return to service as expected – it may be necessary to implement load shedding at short notice.”
Due to the shortage of generating capacity, phase 2 load shedding can be implemented in the short term
message between 16:00 and 24:00 in the next three days pic.twitter.com/MF8L5BJaIy— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) August 2, 2022
Eskom suspended load shedding 10 days ago, after five weeks of intense power outages that even reached stage 6 – shedding 6,000 MW from the grid and shedding the load for up to four hours at a time.
The period prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to take drastic measures and implement an energy crisis plan that will see the government cut red tape and accelerate the construction of new energy capacity to bolster the country’s energy resources.
The president’s Energy Crisis Committee on Monday (Aug. 1) drafted a plan that will see the country add as much as 1,950 MW of power to the grid over the next three months. However, analysts have emphasized that this is not enough to cover Eskom’s immediate shortage of 6,000 MW.
Load shedding will remain a fixture in South Africa until this energy gap is closed.
Read: New plans for Eskom’s ‘unsustainable’ debt in South Africa
