Cape Town - Get set for up to eight hours without electricity following Eskom’s sharp intensification of load shedding to Stage 6 on Tuesday night.
At the same time hang on to your wallets, as today the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is set to announce the average Eskom electricity price increase for the 2023/24 year, commencing on April 1.
Energy consultant Chris Yelland tweeted that Nersa’s announcement was eagerly awaited news for domestic, municipal, commercial and industrial consumers, as well as for the manufacturing, mining and agriculture sectors.
On Tuesday evening, Eskom announced that load shedding would be escalated to Stage 6 from 9pm until 5am yesterday.
Yesterday, Eskom said in a statement Stage 6 load shedding would be implemented continuously until further notice.
Stage 6 means rotational power cuts of 6 000MW and, depending on the area, roughly eight hours per day of no electricity from Eskom.
The power utility said that 11 generators, amounting to 5 084MW of capacity, had suffered breakdowns since Tuesday morning, further reducing available capacity and necessitating the increase in the stages of load shedding.
The last time Eskom announced Stage 6 load shedding was for a period of nine days in December, and prior to that was two days in September.
Meanwhile, the City said Eskom’s non-stop load-shedding at high stages, including Stage 6, had negatively impacted its infrastructure to the point where despite contingency measures in place, the City’s ability to protect its customers from a stage or two of load shedding was affected.
The statement said the City’s transversal Disaster Operations Centre had been activated to mitigate any potential impact for Cape Town residents, and the situation was being closely monitored.
Traffic and additional enforcement resources are on standby to be deployed if required for any public safety issues, or in areas affected by prolonged power outages.
While nearly 75% of signalised intersections on the City’s road network are equipped with UPS systems, the UPS batteries do not have sufficient time to recharge when Eskom implements non-stop Stage 4 load shedding or above.
Looking ahead, independent energy analyst Hilton Trollip said it was most likely load shedding would stay at least the same – or get worse.
“As the business year starts, businesses and factories begin using more electricity. Demand will go up and, because we don’t have enough reserve to increase supply, the gap between demand and supply will increase and load shedding will increase.”
Trollip said that Eskom had for years failed to carry out proper maintenance.”
The night-time load shedding is needed to recharge the pump storage and alleviate diesel usage, but Energy Council of South Africa chief executive James Mackay said the implementation was a matter of great concern.
“At elevated levels we are also seeing a breakdown in key societal services such as hospital care, sewerage treatment and job losses,” he said.
“This also puts major assets and personnel at risk. Just imagine an underground mine or hospital ICU that has its power cut in an unplanned way,” said Mackay.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za