Eskom has issued a warning of load shedding at short notice after five generator units broke down causing the loss of 16 000MW of power.
“Eskom requests the public to reduce the usage of electricity as the power system is severely constrained following the failure of five generating units,” it said.
“Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 14h00 today until 05h00 on Saturday 20 November. This is to preserve the remaining emergency reserves at the OCGT and pump storage power stations in order to prevent higher stages of load shedding. Of the five units that failed yesterday, a unit at Majuba, Kriel and Matimba power stations have returned to service while the remaining two units are undergoing boiler tube leak repairs.”
It said five generation units at various power stations had failed throughout the day – three in just two hours.
The power utility stated that it would communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the power system.
A unit at Kusile and a unit at Majuba were taken offline to repair boiler tube leaks. Elsewhere, units at Kriel, Matimba, and Majuba – again – simply tripped. There’s additional pressure on the grid too, as units at Kenda and Tutuka failed to come back online as scheduled.
Nearly 22 000 MW of power is offline in South Africa right now, due to these various issues.
Sources: IOL, MSN, BusinessTech
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