A general view of the headquarter of the embattled South African main electricity provider ESKOM is pictured on February 4, 2015 in Johannesburg. South Africa power supply was under “extreme” pressure on February 2, 2015 and likely to remain so until end of the week after a technical fault at the country’s sole nuclear plant, electricity utility Eskom said. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP)
Load shedding scare: Eskom rocked by Mpumalanga substation fire
A substation in Balfour burst into flames after being struck by lightning.
A general view of the headquarter of the embattled South African main electricity provider ESKOM is pictured on February 4, 2015 in Johannesburg. South Africa power supply was under “extreme” pressure on February 2, 2015 and likely to remain so until end of the week after a technical fault at the country’s sole nuclear plant, electricity utility Eskom said. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / AFP)
As if the current power crisis wasn’t enough to keep Eskom busy this festive season, a substation in Balfour, Mpumalanga caught alight, affecting thousands of residents.
The blaze erupted on Sunday afternoon.
The power utility’s substation – which is the distribution unit in the area, caught fire after being struck by lightning. Eskom says their remotely controlled system, noticed an error in a substation at of their transformers.
Technicians to examine the extent of damage
The power utility says its technicians will assess the amount of damage caused by the fire, which has since been extinguished. No fatalities or injuries have been reported in the incident.
“As soon as we know what is the damage, whether the damage includes the second and third transformer, then we can ascertain the value of the damage. But also ascertain how quickly we can restore because if the three transformers are affected, the time to restore the system might be longer”, said Eskom general manager Phil Khumalo.
The blaze has affected more than five thousand Eskom customers in the area.
“However we also feed from one of the transformers directly to the municipality so all the municipal customers will also be affected”
No load shedding planned on Monday
The cash-strapped utility has been managing to keep the lights on, at least for now. On 9 December 2019, it left South Africans concerned after implementing stage 6 load shedding for the first time in its history.
However it has warned residents that its system remains vulnerable and constrained and that load shedding is a likelihood on Monday.
“There is no load shedding today, as a result of a drop in demand during the holiday period and a return of some generating units to service. Eskom has, since Sunday, not utilised emergency diesel to supplement capacity. We however remind customers that as the system continues to be vulnerable and unpredictable, the possibility of load shedding remains”, Eskom said in a statement.
Breakdowns are at 12 956MW as of 06:30 monday morning, this is still well above the level of 9 500MW the utility is aiming for.
“Our technical teams will continue to work over the holiday period to monitor the situation, carry out planned maintenance and to work at reducing unplanned breakdowns to below 9 500MW to enable us to minimise the possibility of load shedding. We continue to ask customers to reduce demand as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or lessen the level of load shedding.”
