South Africans Face Risk of Load Shedding Tonight as System “Under Stress”

It could be romantic cande-lit dinners and baths for South Africans tonight, as Eskom says its power system is “under stress” this morning, Thursday 30 January 2020, and the country faces the risk of load shedding this evening.

The power utility issued a power alert this morning, revealing that it is using diesel generators currently to meet demand.

“The units that were expected to come back from maintenance were delayed, which led to diesel generators being used overnight.

“While we have adequate emergency reserves to supplement capacity during the day, we may need to implement loadshedding this evening in order to augment diesel and water at our open cycle gas turbines and pumped storage systems respectively,” said Eskom.

Unplanned outages were at 13 063 MW as at 06:30 this morning, slightly up from 12 620 yesterday.

Eskom will continue with it planned maintenance schedule while its teams continue to work around the clock to bring back on line units that experienced breakdowns. Keeping generation units breakages below 9 500 MW is part of Eskom’s plan to manage its ageing fleet and return stability to the power system.

Eskom reiterated its request to customers to please work with them by reducing demand while the state owned entity works on stabilising the power system.

Eskom says: Use electricity smartly while you are at work:

• Use the cold water tap
• Only fill kettles with as much water as you need
• Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23ºC
• Turn off computers, copiers, printers at the switch and avoid standby or sleep mode
• Switch off the lights when you leave the office

#PowerAlert 1
Date: 30 January 2020

Power system tight and risk of loadshedding in the evening @SABCNewsOnline @IOL @eNCA @ewnupdates @News24 @SowetanLIVE @SAgovnews @TheSAnews pic.twitter.com/EntnOdv4P6

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) January 30, 2020