Eskom ramps up emergency generation to keep power on

A R After some of skom’s generating units failed over the weekend, A’s power supply was reported running dangerously low early yesterday.

he power utility is now battling an electricity shortfall of , M due to these breakdowns as well as unplanned maintenance.

n a statement issued yesterday, skom said that while some of the units are back online, along with others that have been down due to scheduled maintenance, they are not generating sufficient electricity to meet current demand.

nplanned outages above

, M mean skom has to resort to emergency power generation by using open cycle gas turbines and pumped storage hydroelectric plants.

hese are very e pensive ways of generating power, particularly the gas turbines, which re uire large

uantities of diesel. hey can only be used for short periods before diesel and water reserves start running out.

“ skom has since Monday increased its usage of its pumped storage and diesel generators to keep the lights on. he e tensive use has led to a decline in pumped storage water and diesel levels and a concerted effort is being made to replenish these reserves,” the utility said.

ts emergency response command centre is now trying to supplement diesel to “avoid and or if unavoidable, minimise load shedding.”

skom urged customers to use power sparingly, by setting air conditioners’ average temperature at degrees and switching off geysers.

Last month, outh Africans suffered five days of load shedding after outages at five generating units. skom also resorted to emergency power generation, but when its diesel stocks started running low, it was forced to implement rotational power outages.