No load shedding expected today as unplanned breakdowns shrink

Eskom does not expect load shedding on Wednesday as unplanned breakdowns shrank to 11 479MW early in the morning.

Still, load shedding can only be ruled out if unplanned outages fall to below 9 500MW. 

On Tuesday afternoon, unplanned breakdowns reached 12 751MW. Planned maintenance outages have removed 4 660MW in electricity provision.

"We remind South Africans that there is a possibility of increased load shedding as we are conducting critical maintenance to restore the ageing plant to good health, Eskom cautioned in a statement.

Eskom warned that load shedding could be implemented at short notice"if the situation worsened. It is currently using emergency generation to help power provision.

This means it is using open cycle gas turbines and pumped-storage hydroelectric plants. These are very expensive ways of generating power, particularly the gas turbines, which require large quantities of diesel. They can only be used for short periods before diesel and water reserves start running out.

"The generation system remains constrained, vulnerable and unpredictable," Eskom warned on Wednesday morning.