Eskom is still using emergency reserves to avoid risk of load shedding

Don’t look now, South Africa, but we’re now entering the second day in a row without load shedding from Eskom.

On Tuesday, everyone’s favourite power utility issued an update detailing its efforts to avoid rolling blackouts that were again sprung on the country last week.

The issues were caused by boiler leaks at a number of stations, problems at Medupi, a lack of reserve power available from pumped storage and diesel burners, and unplanned maintenance of other plants.

On Monday, a new issue emerged, when a “fault” was identified on its 400KV line connecting the 2000MW Hendrina Power Station in Mpumalanga.

#POWERALERT 1
Date: 22 October 2019

No loadshedding is expected today @SABCNewsOnline @IOL @ewnupdates @eNCA @SowetanLIVE @SAgovnews @News24 @TheCitizen_News @Moneyweb @Fin24 @TimesLIVE pic.twitter.com/kZLvkZAcYN

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) October 22, 2019

That said, the fault is being “investigated” and hasn’t forced the utility to implement rolling blackouts as of Tuesday midday.

While there is a low probability for load shedding this week, Eskom notes the system remains “extremely constrained and vulnerable”.

It’s also currently “using some of our emergency reserves to minimise [the] probability of load shedding”.

“We continue to appeal to residents and businesses to use electricity sparingly,” Eskom concluded.

Feature image: Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash