Eskom CEO André de Ruyter poisoned the day after his resignation Image via Twitter @Chris Yelland
De Ruyter: Eskom ‘working very hard’ to SUSPEND load shedding
Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter says they’re unable to meet the country’s electricity demands, thus the implementation of load shedding
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter poisoned the day after his resignation Image via Twitter @Chris Yelland
Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter has assured South Africans they are doing all they can to end the latest bout of load shedding.
The embattled power utility re-introduced stage 2 load shedding on Tuesday, 3 May 2022, due to a shortage of generation capacity and breakdowns at some of its stations. Citizens will now be forced to put up with rolling blackouts at least until Monday – but De Ruyter is hoping that it happens a lot sooner.
“We are working very hard to return units to service. We are doing our level best to accelerate [suspending load shedding] but unfortunately where we are right now, we have no alternative,” he said.
The power utility was scheduled to hold another media briefing on the state of the grid on Thursday, 5 May 2022, but spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said there was currently no need as not much has changed.
STAGE 2 LOAD SHEDDING TO CONTINUE… FOR NOW
Andre De Ruyter says as things stand, Eskom is unable to meet the country’s electricity demands, thus the implementation of the power cuts.
“We have a deficit between our demand and our available generating capacity, hence the reason for us to implement stage two load shedding. Obviously also bearing in mind that we do not wish to deplete all of our reserves in continuously meeting excess demand because then… we will run out of diesel to fire up our open cycle gas turbines… and we will also run out of capacity at our pump storage systems. These are very important back-up systems in order to prevent the far worse scenario of a total system blackout”
Eskom CEO Andre De Ruyter
At the same time, Eskom’s Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer said despite implementing load shedding, they are still using extensive emergency reserves to go through the morning and evening peaks (of electricity use).
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