Load shedding off as demand drops

Eskom announced yesterday it will suspend load shedding as demand declined ahead of the weekend.

The announcement came after the power utility had implemented Stage 2 load shedding between 10pm and 5am on Wednesday and Thursday.

Though load shedding has been suspended because the demand for electricity has dropped, Eskom still requested people to continue using electricity sparingly as the system remained vulnerable.

“We will use the lower demand opportunity during the weekend to continue replenishing the emergency generation reserves in preparation for the expected higher demand during the coming week,” Eskom said.

“In this period, Eskom will also continue to pursue reliability maintenance as planned and previously communicated. This will continue to put pressure on the generation plant going into the week.

“However, maintenance is necessary in order to improve the reliability and performance of the power stations.

“We currently have 6 060MW of capacity on planned maintenance, while another 13 206MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns and other load losses.

“Eskom teams are working hard to return as many of these units to service as soon as possible. Eskom will communicate timeously should there be any significant changes.”

The utility announced on Monday it had taken Koeberg Unit 1 offl ine for repairs after an increasing leak rate was observed on one of its three steam generators on Sunday.

The leak rate was within safety limits, Eskom said, but it had to take Unit 1 offl ine for repairs and routine maintenance and refuelling, which was originally scheduled to start in February. The unit is expected to return to service in May.

Energy expert Ted Blom said on Tuesday the earlier maintenance of the plant would result in higher risk of load shedding. “Unit 1 generates 980MW that is now not available. So I expect the chances of load shedding to increase dramatically.”