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AfrElec ESKOM AfrElec

South Africa utility Eskom

warns of further loadshedding

after 91 days of power cuts

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s national electricity company accommodated in the plan, which she described
Eskom told the Parliament on August 31 to as “tight.”
expect further loadshedding, Mining Weekly “Any significant outage slips will have a
reports. The embattled power utility said it had knock-on effect that will influence the plan from
more unplanned outages during winter months that point forward,” Fick said as quoted by Min-
than Eskom’s scenario planning expected, with ing Weekly, adding that the plan did not cater
91 days of loadshedding having been imple- for difficulties that could arise as a result of an
mented so far in 2022. industrial action or protest.
The power utility presented its system status Fick also stressed the uncertainty of the plan,
and outlook to the joint portfolio committee on with Eskom having operated above worst-case
public enterprises, mineral resources and energy, scenario levels for 42.5% of the time during win-
outlining what it expects in terms of power ter, implementing Stage 6 loadshedding in June
capacity and maintenance over the next year. and July for the first time since 2019 partly as a
Eskom’s summer ‘base case’ scenario is result of an illegal strike.
premised on there being 13,000 MW of ongoing Eskom told lawmakers that the loadshedding
unplanned breakdowns, writes Mining Weekly, risk could be “greatly reduced” over the coming
in addition to any planned maintenance, which 36 months if all the initiatives announced by
rises substantially in the lower-demand summer President Cyril Ramaphosa as part of the Energy
months. Action Plan were implemented, writes Mining
According to Eskom’s model under that Weekly.
base scenario, there will be 22 days of Stage 1 The power utility plans to add new genera-
load-shedding for the period from September tion capacity to reduce the risk of loadshedding.
2022 to the end of March 2023. The monthly cost According to Eskom, more than 8,000MW could
of generating electricity using the diesel-fuelled be added from a combination of new-build, Just
open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs) to cover for Energy Transition (JET) projects, plant perfor-
the underperforming coal fleet could range from mance improvements and managing demand
ZAR517mn ($30mn) to ZAR2bn ($116mn). response.
However, under the worst unplanned break- CEO André de Ruyter said that repower-
down scenario of 16,000MW, the Eskom out- ing activities at decommissioned coal stations,
look indicates that Stage 3 rotational cuts would together with the Eskom land lease agreement
have to be implemented on most days between with independent power producers (IPPs)
September and March. In addition, monthly were designed to facilitate the introduction of
diesel costs could theoretically surge to between new generation capacity. At Komati, Eskom’s
ZAR3.9bn and ZAR8.9bn JET pilot site, the utility is aiming to pursue a
Eskom’s System Operator GM, Isabel Fick, 100MW solar project and a 40MW to 70MW
said that all reliability maintenance required wind farm.™
in the 12-month planning period had been

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