Power state ‘extremely serious’

JOHANNESBURG – The current power situation is “extremely serious” as nine of Eskom’s generators have tripped over the last few days, the power utility said yesterday.

Spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said the national grid was vulnerable to further trips and South Africans could expect “far more extensive” load shedding than they had experienced on Monday. He said yesterday’s expected power usage peak was 32 000 MW, when Eskom could only produce about 30 000 MW.Power cuts could be expected throughout the day and in the whole of the country.The causes for the trips varied and were not due to lack of maintenance, but to technical problems, he said.”These problems are typical for the kind of process we run and will occur from time to time.”These trips coincidentally happened close to each other.”He said the underlying problem was the absence of any reserve margins Eskom had, to cope with failing generators.Of the 56 generators in South Africa, nine were in maintenance – in addition to the nine that failed over the past few days.If more failures occurred, which Etzinger said was unlikely but not impossible, the national grid could become unstable and mining companies would have to be informed of a force majeure situation.Etzinger expected three of the generators to be back in service by last night.News24He said yesterday’s expected power usage peak was 32 000 MW, when Eskom could only produce about 30 000 MW.Power cuts could be expected throughout the day and in the whole of the country.The causes for the trips varied and were not due to lack of maintenance, but to technical problems, he said.”These problems are typical for the kind of process we run and will occur from time to time.”These trips coincidentally happened close to each other.”He said the underlying problem was the absence of any reserve margins Eskom had, to cope with failing generators.Of the 56 generators in South Africa, nine were in maintenance – in addition to the nine that failed over the past few days.If more failures occurred, which Etzinger said was unlikely but not impossible, the national grid could become unstable and mining companies would have to be informed of a force majeure situation.Etzinger expected three of the generators to be back in service by last night.News24