Load Shedding Eases to Stage 4 as Eskom Recovers Multiple Units
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Johannesburg, South Africa – South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, has announced a reduction in load shedding to Stage 4, effective from 00h30 on Monday, February 24th. This follows a weekend of intense power disruptions, culminating in Stage 6 load shedding, due to multiple unit trips at various power stations.
The reprieve comes after Eskom engineers successfully brought eight out of ten tripped generation units back online. The initial wave of outages began on Saturday, with five units tripping at Majuba and one at Medupi, leading to Stage 3 load shedding. The situation worsened in the early hours of Sunday when four more units went down at Camden, forcing the escalation to Stage 6.
Eskom confirmed that all five units at Majuba, two units at Camden, and one unit at Medupi have been recovered. “The return of these units comes after identifying the root causes of multiple unit trips, which were unconnected and purely technical in nature, related to electrical and control system issues in auxiliary parts of these power stations,” Eskom stated.
In addition to the recovered units, Eskom reported that the replenishment of emergency reserves is progressing well. Despite the improvement, Stage 4 load shedding will remain in effect until further notice. Eskom is expected to provide an updated briefing on Monday afternoon.
At a briefing on Sunday, Eskom officials expressed optimism that all tripped units should be back online by Tuesday, with the grid expected to be fully recovered by the end of the week.
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa addressed the role of planned maintenance in the recent surge in load shedding. He highlighted that the current 7,706MW of planned maintenance significantly reduces the grid’s buffer capacity, making it vulnerable to unexpected unit failures.
“Keeping so many megawatts offline for ‘aggressive’ maintenance means there is a much smaller ‘buffer’ in the event that units fail. So when units go offline unexpectedly, load shedding has to be implemented to secure the grid,” Ramokgopa explained.
However, the Minister emphasized that this maintenance regime is crucial for long-term grid stability and cannot be compromised. He argued that neglecting maintenance would lead to more frequent and severe breakdowns, exacerbating load shedding in the future.
“The aggressive maintenance regime needs to be upheld – risks and all – so that the grid can become more reliable and stable. Neglecting maintenance would just lead to more trips and breakdowns, making load shedding more frequent, as was the case in previous years.” said Ramokgopa.
Eskom will provide further updates on the situation following their briefing on Monday afternoon, as the nation awaits further news on the stability of the power grid.
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