Load shedding has been reduced to Stage 3 from this morning until 5am on Saturday morning, following the recovery of some generating units at Eskom.<\/p>\n
The power utility says the continuation of load shedding is necessary for further replenishing of reserves.<\/p>\n
Some 6 647MW is currently unavailable due to planned maintenance with a further 14 692MW of capacity offline due to breakdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe continued load shedding is necessary due to the shortage of generation capacity as a result of persistent high levels of breakdowns, and to further replenish the emergency generation reserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cA generating unit each at Hendrina, Kendal and Majuba power stations were taken offline for repairs. Furthermore, the delay in returning a generating unit each to service at Kendal, Komati and Tutuka power stations have added to the capacity constraints,\u201d Eskom said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Various stages of load shedding have been persistently implemented for the better part of the last three weeks following multiple breakdowns at Eskom\u2019s power stations.<\/p>\n
The power utility said however that some recovery has been made.<\/p>\n
\u201cA generation unit each at Arnot, Kriel, Lethabo, Matla [power stations] as well as two units at Camden Power Station have returned to service since last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cEskom apologises for the continued and unfortunate load shedding, which is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns,\u201d the power utility said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Department of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan slammed what he called \u201cactive efforts to disrupt operations\u201d at some of the power utility\u2019s power stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some of the power stations, there\u2019s a deliberate climate of resistance to better performance, to making sure that the right kind of operations are undertaken and even experienced operators appear to deliberately make sure that there is malfunction of key parts of a power station,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Minister added that the power utility\u2019s new board will have to look into those matters and that further steps must be taken.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time has come where everyone at Eskom \u2013 whether they are at the management level or whether they are at the operational floor \u2013 [realise] that what they do and what they don\u2019t do and the level of application that they demonstrate\u2026makes a huge difference to the economy, to investment in South Africa and to ensuring that there\u2019s greater confidence in the economy and the country as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot have on the one hand, where there are people who stand on platforms and demand growth and jobs and on the other hand, members of those organisations appear to do things to undermine the efforts that are currently being made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Source: South African Government News Agency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"