Pretoria - Stage one load-shedding is to be implemented this morning, Eskom said on Tuesday.
“This is due to a shortage of generation capacity as several units are currently on unplanned outages due to technical faults,” said the utility on Tuesday morning.
Stage one of load shedding allows for up to 1 000MW to be shed off the grid.
At Tutuka, Unit 6 experienced a condenser tube leak last night and had to be taken offline; Duvha Unit 6 is on outage so that repairs can be done on its oil cooler; while work is on-going at Koeberg’s Unit 1 which experienced an earth fault on the generator transformer on Sunday.
The utility also notified customers that in Cape Town three mini substations have been vandalised, affecting industrial customers in the Blackheath area. As a result, customers in that area will have power outages for most of today.
“Eskom has been working on urgent repairs since the incident occurred early this morning. We ask communities to desist from vandalising Eskom property as it not only interrupts customers’ power supply but is also very dangerous and can lead to the loss of life. We urge customers who have any information regarding this incident to contact Eskom’s Crime Line on 0800 11 2722,” said the utility.
The power parastatal further added that the power system remains constrained and will remain so for the rest of this week.
“Any extra load or faults in the system may necessitate the need to go into load shedding. We therefore urge all electricity customers to reduce their consumption in order to reduce the severity of load shedding.”
The utility urged all customers to reduce the load on the electricity grid by urgently switching off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and all non-essential appliances throughout the day, which will reduce electricity demand.
Commercial customers, particularly shopping centres and office blocks, can also make a big difference by switching off non-essential lights and not leaving office equipment such as photocopiers and computers in standby mode after hours.
Eskom customers can check load shedding schedules on the Eskom website (http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za) or contact the customer call centre on 0860 037 566. Municipal customers are urged to contact their local authorities.
In its system status bulletin on Monday the utility said that Unit 1 was scheduled to go on a planned refuelling, inspection and maintenance outage on 9 February 2015. This would go ahead as planned. The outage is scheduled to be completed towards the end of May, after which the unit will return to service.
Koeberg Unit 2 is currently on full power sending out 930 MW to the national grid and there are no nuclear safety concerns for both units 1 and 2. - SAnews.gov.za
