Prepare yourself for long-term load shedding

SOUTH Africans should brace themselves for more load shedding as Eskom is expecting power cuts to only end in September next year.

This is according to Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, who said the power utility was fixing units at its two power stations.

The power utility said load shedding would be reduced to stage 1 today from 9am to 10pm as capacity constraints had eased.

It said four generation units had been returned to service at the Duvha, Kriel, Tutuka and Kusile power stations.

Speaking to The Mercury yesterday, Mantshantsha said there was a plan to end load shedding but, unfortunately, the plan was going to take some time.

“We are working on a plan that we hope by September 2021 we will have no load shedding,” said Mantshantsha.

He said when Medupi and Kusile power stations were built, there were many faults made as they had never performed to their full capacity.

He said the two were designed so that in each of their six units they would produce 800 megawatts.

However, he said, in each unit they were yet to produce even 600 megawatts and this was due to the design of the power stations.

Mantshantsha said that in February when they fixed one unit in Medupi, it was able to perform to its full capacity for the first time since 2015.

“This means that we have to fix all the units in the upcoming months. To fix one unit takes about 75 days. We will have to do the same to other stations and that process will be ongoing till September 2021. We have already done that in Ingula power station.”

He said by next September, Eskom hoped to have a constant 11 000MW from these three stations for the first time. “We would have also done more of the refurbishment which is why Eskom is hopeful that it will end load shedding around that time.”