Eskom says that it is able to reduce load shedding to stage 5 on Monday after several power stations were returned to service overnight.
“Overnight a unit each at Camden, Kriel, Kusile and Kendal were returned but unfortunately had to take off a unit at Duvha which developed a boiler tube leak. Loadshedding will thus be reduced to Stage 5 at midnight,” the group said.
Planned outages are currently at 5,411MW, while breakdowns currently amount to 16,326MW.
Eskom chief executive officer, Andre de Ruyter, said Sunday (18 September), that the power utility is working hard to bring back failing generation units and restore stability to the grid.
This after multiple trips, breakdowns and delays in return to service at generation units caused the implementation of Stage 6 load shedding over the weekend.
De Ruyter said teams at coal-fired power stations are “working flat out” to bring back generation units as quickly as they can.
By Sunday, Eskom had lost at least 22,000MW of generation capacity due in part to units being taken offline for maintenance, but mostly from unplanned breakdowns.
De Ruyter said added to this, reserve generation capacity is also at levels that are “too low for comfort”.
He said generation capacity has also been constrained by the loss of some 800MW at Kusile Power Station and a further 900MW still unavailable at the Koeberg Nuclear power station.
De Ruyter said steps are also being taken to urgently procure more electricity following an urgent Eskom board meeting in the presence of DPE Minister, Pravin Gordhan, on Saturday.
“[On Monday], we will be approaching the market to procure whatever megawatts that are available on an urgent basis. We think that we can get about 1 000 MW from available generation capacity that we can tap into.
“Not all of that is immediately available. Some of that relies on suppliers having to replenish their coal bunkers or secure additional gas supply. But in the case of IPPs (independent power producers), we have a very high degree of confidence that we can urgently procure more megawatts,” De Ruyter said.
Read: Why you will probably have to pay 38% more for Eskom power next year
