Eskom confirms Stage 3 load shedding on Friday, 31 January at 17:00

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Power utility Eskom has confirmed that Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented on Friday, 31 January at 17:00 and will run for the weekend – or until further notice.

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Eskom claimed that it has been hit by a ‘perfect storm’ of incidents that have brought outages back.

The planned load shedding ended a period of nearly 11 months without South Africa going dark.

It added that the risk of an escalation to Stage 4 remains – if more units trip or there are significant delays – but the current outlook is that Stage 3 will be maintained.

The utility said that it experienced several breakdowns at its power stations that required it to use its reserves.

Skeptical by the timing

However, by Friday, the reserves were used up and it needed to replenish them, putting the grid at risk.

South Africans were left skeptical by the timing of the load shedding which came 24 hours after Eskom was denied it’s desired price hikes over the next three years – as reported by The South African website.

The ‘perfect storm’ that hit includes:

Units were out for planned maintenance
6 units at key power stations broke down – 5 of which are still offline
Other downed units were delayed in coming back online
Eskom has been depending on its OCGTs
The reserves have been exhausted, and the reserve margins have to be maintained

“We were under the impression that load shedding was behind us, but we have to protect the integrity of the system,” Ramokgopa said. “It’s disappointing to all of us…but the trendline is in the right direction.”

Eskom said that it would spend the weekend returning units back to power.

Breakdowns have exceeded 13 000MW, which is in line with the planned-for scenarios in its summer outlook.