[ad_1]
By ANA Reporter 
10h ago
Cape Town – Eskom will transition from stage 2 load shedding to stage 1 on Sunday between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., the state power company said.
In a statement on Saturday, Eskom said that the recovery of emergency generation reserves had shown significant progress, thus reducing the load reduction.
“It is necessary to continue load shedding to fully recover the emergency generation reserves in preparation for next week. Eskom will communicate in time in the event of significant changes in the power system, ”he said.
“We currently have 7,914MW in planned maintenance, while another 10,468MW of capacity is not available due to unplanned maintenance. Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as many of these units as possible to service as soon as possible. “
Eskom apologized for the “inconvenience during this difficult period” and asked South Africans to continue to use electricity sparingly to help us limit the impact of falling loads.
Eskom, implemented the Stage 2 load reduction at 6 a.m. Saturday morning, saying the system was severely restricted and that it needed to implement a load reduction to replenish depleted emergency generation reserves by next week.
Eskom said that while it increased its planned maintenance during the “off-peak summer period,” there had been a “large number of unforeseen breakdowns from the aging and unreliable plant in recent days.”
“In addition to this, Eskom has disconnected two generating units at the Kendal power plant in accordance with environmental legislation. Similarly, four generating units at Camden Power Station were shut down to preserve the integrity of the ash dam facility, ”he said Friday.
On October 29, Eskom said that its Unit 2 at the Kusile power station in Mpumalanga province had reached commercial operation status and would contribute up to 800 megawatts to the national grid.
At the time, Eskom said that this was the second unit in Kusile to enter commercial operation, and that Unit 1 did so in 2017.
“The commercial operation of Unit 2 is an important milestone signifying the progress made by Eskom towards the completion of the Kusile Construction Project, in which the nation’s best hopes of bringing stability and ensuring the security of electricity supply lie. to boost the South African economy, ”said at the time the executive of Eskom’s group for capital projects, Bheki Nxumalo.
Eskom said construction, testing and optimization activities on the remaining four units were progressing well, with some of them currently providing intermittent power to support the grid.
Kusile is the first power plant in South Africa and the continent to use state-of-the-art wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) to remove sulfur oxides from the exhaust gases of coal- or oil-burning power plants.
The company is installing WFGD at the Kusile plant as an air emissions reduction technology to ensure compliance with air quality standards, in accordance with current international practice.
Eskom, which supplies about 95 percent of South Africa’s energy, has struggled for the past decade to meet demand. This is due in large part to frequent breakdowns of its outdated and historically poorly maintained infrastructure, which have forced Eskom to implement continuous blackouts to avoid overwhelming the network.
In September, Eskom said it had suspended managers at two of its power plants after breakdowns that forced the company to increase blackouts earlier this week to avoid tripping over the national grid.
African News Agency (ANA)
[ad_2]
