A total of 15 467 MW of Eskom’s generation capacity was off-line on Wednesday, constituting an unprecedented 36 % of Eskom’s 43 000 MW installed capacity.
This is a further indication of the rapid deterioration of Eskom’s generation fleet performance.
The utility started Thursday with stage two load shedding, reducing demand by 2 000 MW, but had to resort to stage 3 load shedding from mid-afternoon.
This saw South Africans countrywide being subjected to two time slots without electricity as Eskom aimed to reduce electricity demand by 4 000MW to prevent a total system collapse.
10 424 MW was off-line due to unplanned outages and 5 043 MW as a result of planned maintenance..
Eskom said in its System Status Bulletin issued on Thursday night the system was “severely volatile”.
Unit 1 of Koeberg was still “undergoing start-up tests required for synchronisation after the (earlier) fault on the generator was resolved and is expected to return to service this evening.”
It will however only be back for a few days, as Eskom earlier said the unit will be taken out of service again for planned maintenance on Monday. depriving the system of almost 1000 MW.
Source: Moneyweb
