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ESKOM TEETERS... AGAIN

De Ruyter acknowledges South Africa is ‘tired of load shedding’ as we move to Stage 4 tonight

There will be power cuts this week between 5pm and 10pm as Eskom has suffered a total of 16,307MW in unplanned losses.
De Ruyter acknowledges South Africa is ‘tired of load shedding’ as we move to Stage 4 tonight Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter. (Photo: Gallo Images / Rapport / Deon Raath)
Suné Payne
By Suné Payne
16 May 2022
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Eskom’s rolling blackouts will continue this week, the utility confirmed at a media briefing on Monday morning. The power cuts will take place between 5pm and 10pm. 

During the virtual briefing, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said the entity suffered 11,852MW in full losses of generational capacity. Partial losses stood at 4,455MW.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Stage 3 load shedding starting this week”

Eskom announced Stage 2 would begin on Sunday and rise to Stage 3 on Monday and Tuesday. The country would return to Stage 2 from Wednesday to Friday. It said it was doing 2,094MW of planned maintenance. 

A few hours after the briefing ended, Eskom announced it would now move to Stage 4 between 5pm and 10pm tonight. It said the Kusile power station had tripped.

[embed]https://twitter.com/Eskom_SA/status/1526176603809755137?s=20&t=nUMeQK8n0R0XbUJiFJcfJg[/embed]

De Ruyter explained that the system was constrained during peak hours, including at night, but load shedding would be implemented when it would have “less impact” on business. 

When asked to explain why load shedding takes place during the evening, Eskom official Isabel Frik said evenings had a “distinct load profile” where people returned from school and work, and where geysers and stoves, which are used for bathing, “use a lot of electricity”. 

Evening peak demand stood at 31,000MW, which caused a shortfall in generational capacity. Eskom is also burning two million litres of diesel per day while generating electricity. 

Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said that after tripping on Friday, Kusile 1 was expected to return to service by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. 

Read in Daily Maverick: “An entire working month lost to load shedding in 2022 as Eskom’s head of generation resigns”  

Responding to questions from journalists, De Ruyter said: “I agree with you, South Africa is tired of load shedding.” DM

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Comments (4)

Fanie Rajesh Ngabiso May 16, 2022, 05:20 PM

These rolling blackouts are: 1. costing South Africans billions; and 2. crushing businesses that people have worked their whole lives to build; and 3. reducing our global competitiveness. 4. potentially endangering the citizens of Cape Town (over age nuclear power plants) to mention but a few things... "Tired" is not the word I would choose!

Dragan KostaKostic May 16, 2022, 09:24 PM

True but big huge profits for corrupt big business !! Karpowership's R3.3 billion-per-year 'freebie' thanks to Nersa's slip-up As Karpowership and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe battle to keep the risk mitigation independent private power procurement programme (RMI4P) alive, documents scrutinised by amaBhungane appear to disclose the extent to which Eskom is expected to pay the Turkish powership group for "nothing" under a generous "take-or-pay" provision. While the figures are only available for Karpowership's bids, the same skewed demand and supply ratios would apply to other RMI4P bids, underlining criticism of the design of the tender which results in much higher pricing than necessary. news24.com/fin24/companies/industrial/ramaphosa-load-shedding-will-be-with-us-for-some-time-to-come-20211125?fbclid=IwAR1YD9c3dJDZD6KLN1L76wOJuuk3V36T2l3t0_expGbEfBmHnSTcmu-O_b8

Michael Sham May 16, 2022, 05:41 PM

Its amazing that when we have a crisis, you never hear from the cabinet minister involved. Where is Pravin Gordhan and Gwede Mantashe when Eskom is failing? Where is Fake Mbalula when the trains don't run? Where is Bheki Cele when we have riots and looting? Too scared to face their own voters. I hope that the voters remember this next year.

Louis Potgieter May 16, 2022, 08:45 PM

It's Mantashe or Mzansi.

Joe Soap May 17, 2022, 07:00 PM

Yes, I am tired of load shedding. Speaking for myself I am also tired of the ANC, unreliable water, a filthy country, the lack of shills, potholes, broken robots, Dali Mpho, the ANC's fake renewal, the fact that Telkom is always experiencing high call volumes, and Julius Malema's obsession with race.