Don’t pack away the candles…Eskom warns of high risk of load shedding

Eskom’s group chief executive Andre de Ruyter disclosed in a briefing on Thursday 27 January that “much still needs to be done for Eskom to achieve operational sustainability and ensure energy security for South Africa” and that the public energy utility’s road ahead will be paved with load shedding in 2022.

Maintenance and vandalism: Eskom load shedding on the cards for SA in 2022

It appears that there is more darkness at the end of the tunnel for South Africans as Eskom warned about the possibility of load shedding soon.

The struggling power utility shared a statement revealing that there has been an increase in crime, theft, vandalism, and sabotage on its transmission and distribution networks.

This has resulted in losses and “increased risks for customer interruptions”, said De Ruyter according to Sowetan Live.

Meanwhile, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer also said in a briefing on Thursday, that Eskom will be undergoing planned maintenance at many of its substations.

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This will likely see South Africans going without electricity in the near future.

“We will do whatever we can to limit load shedding because we do understand the impact thereof on the country and on the lives of 60 million people,” he also added that despite this, the maintenance will continue.

“We will continue with the planned maintenance and it may contribute to the risk of loadshedding, but we have taken a decision and will stick to that decision because we need to invest in the future,” he said.

Beefing up security

While addressing the instances of theft and vandalism, De Ruyter shared that a number of steps have been taken to ensure power stations are well protected.

Around 450 security personnel were deployed to protect power stations. Drones with infrared cameras and intelligent cameras have also been installed to monitor for “any untoward activity”.

These security measures are understood to have cost the power utility R50 million.

Eskom forecast: All the load shedding scenarios…

Eskom showed a forecast for load shedding based on unplanned unavailability over the summer and winter months up to the end of August.

Over the period, unplanned unavailability of 11 000MW to 12 000MW would result in no load-shedding, but R1.3 billion would have to be spent on diesel to generate additional capacity using open-cycle gas turbines.

Under a worst-case scenario (for the summer months up to the end of March), the assumption of unplanned unavailability increasing to 14 000MW, could result in 29 days of stage 2 load-shedding.

From April to August, under an assumption of 13 000MW of unplanned unavailability, South Africa could experience 61 days of load shedding.

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