Eskom moves to stage 4 load shedding following the sudden tripping of three power stations

Embattled power utility Eskom has announced that stage 4 load shedding will be implemented on Tuesday morning after the sudden tripping of stations.

Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented from 10h00 on Tuesday until 05h00 on Thursday following the sudden tripping of the three power stations.

The utility said a sudden tripping of three Kendal Power Station units totalling 1,920MW maximum generating capacity- has forced the higher stage.

Speaking to the media on Monday (12 September), Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said that the Eskom grid is extremely vulnerable to breakdowns and that any load shedding schedules are subject to change at short notice.

Oberholzer revealed that the beleaguered power supply had 42 units trip over the last week.

“On Saturday morning, it was clear drastic steps were needed to replace diesel storage levels. That led to load shedding. It was a disastrous week for generation. We had 42 units tripping during the week. Around 24 000MW was lost, five of those units remain offline,” he said.

Oberholzer said Eskom intends to ramp up maintenance in the coming months, which could lead to sporadic load shedding. He added that maintenance remains a big issue as the utility is not seeing the outcome it expected.

Eskom is facing maintenance issues with milling plants, high pressure values, cooling water systems, conveyors, and water treatment plants- among others.

The COO said Eskom desperately needs new capacity to be added to the grid so that it can conduct critical maintenance on its stations. There is no capacity for the utility to take off as many units as it needs to do the necessary maintenance, so there are many units that are operating with known defects, the utility said.

Source: The South African, Sowetan Live, Business Tech, image from Twitter

Doctor Mahlaule

Doctor Mahlaule previously worked as a Freelance Journalist at Find-it SA where he was responsible for writing news articles and sharing them on social media platforms. Doctor Mahlaule holds a Diploma in Journalism, BA in Communication Science and a BA Honours in Media Studies. Doctor began his journey as a knowledge Management and Communications Intern at Zenex Foundation. He was responsible for support in event management, social media, website maintenance, writing and brand management. On weekends Doctor attends prison ministry and shares the scriptures with inmates at Krugersdorp prison and plays soccer in the afternoon on some weekends. He has a passion for reading and writing and enjoys going out with friends and socialising in his spare time. He has a one-year-old son and is planning on getting married soon. When asked about what keeps him going, he said: “My family keeps me going. I’m the man I am because I come from a loving home. I have a very supportive family who always encourages me to keep pushing hard.”

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