Eskom not ruling out probability of Stage eight power cuts

Eskom Board Chairperson, Mpho Makwana says that going through the winter season will be difficult and called for a coordinated effort among all stakeholders.

Makwana made the remarks during the State of the System and Winter Outlook briefing on Thursday.

“We are doing everything to mitigate the intensity of rotational load shedding including taking lessons from the rest of the world. We have seen that effective rotational load shedding during winter months requires a coordinated effort among all stakeholders within a country,” he said.

The State’s power utility cautioned that the power system is severely constrained and there is a high risk of elevated stages of load shedding in winter.

“The outlook shows that with breakdowns or capacity unavailable due to unplanned maintenance at 15 000MW, load shedding might be predominantly implemented at Stage 5 for the winter period. Should breakdowns reach 16 500MW, load shedding might be implemented at Stage 6.

“If unplanned outages averages to 18 000MW, load shedding might be required every day and might be implemented up to Stage 8,” Eskom cautioned.

It emphasised that the 18 000MW scenario that could culminate in Stage 8 is an ultimate worst-case scenario which Eskom is working to prevent.

Meanwhile, the Interim Group Chief Executive Calib Cassim said that South Africa experienced the highest levels of load shedding as the energy availability factor (EAF) deteriorated to 56% in the past financial year, against the target of 60%.

However, Cassim did highlight that there were some encouraging developments in the efforts to deal with the electricity crisis in the country.

“The establishment of NECOM and the development of South Africa’s Energy Action Plan, overseen by government, are some of the positive developments aimed at addressing the electricity crisis.

“Furthermore, the determination by the Nersa of a favourable tariff increase as well as the debt relief solution by National Treasury are critical enablers of sustainable electricity supply industry,” Cassim pointed out.