While the situation remains very tense, it is becoming imperative to replenish them to avoid a total collapse of the grid. Faced with the increasing number of blackouts over the last two weeks, it has been forced to draw on its emergency energy reserves, which are now almost empty. The company now has its back against the wall. Only twice, in June 2022 and December 2019, has Eskom had to resort to the level of load shedding currently being implemented. Since the beginning of the year, the country has experienced more than 100 days of power outages at all levels, but rarely has the situation been so critical. South Africans have been confronted with such power cuts since 2007 and have grown used to the chronic shortage.
The only way to avoid overloading the system in the face of these blackouts is to relieve the grid of some of its load by depriving certain geographical areas of electricity.
MELTDOWN STRAIN FULL
This means that the remaining units have to run at full capacity and minor faults become problematic, which has led to many failures over the past week," said Mr. "It is important to understand that these multiple failures put the system under pressure. To compensate for the damage, the operating units are being pushed to the extreme, risking failure given their age. The only way to avoid overloading the system is to relieve the grid by depriving certain geographical areas of electricity In this context, each breakdown that is added to these maintenance interventions puts a little more strain on the situation. Attempting to get things back on track, a new management team is striving to adhere to a strict maintenance schedule that keeps the system under pressure by permanently reducing production capacity. Chronic shortageĮskom has become a totem of the large-scale corruption that marked the tenure of the previous president, Jacob Zuma, between 20. Most of South Africa's coal-fired power plants are around 40 years old and have long suffered from a lack of maintenance, against a backdrop of massive corruption and disastrous management. "It's a fact that most of our power plants are not in good shape," the company's chief operating officer, Jan Oberholzer, acknowledged during the conference. In just seven days, from September 3 to 11, Eskom faced more than 40 outages across its aging fleet, forcing the company to reduce its generating capacity by 50%.
Having already been deprived of part of its crucial nuclear power plant in Koeberg (southwest) due to a mechanical failure, the company had to resort to implementing level 6 (out of 8) load shedding, following new damage in one of its coal-fired plants. "We apologize to South Africans," said Andre de Ruyter, head of Eskom, during an emergency press conference held shortly after the announcement. In Johannesburg, electricity was cut for between 10 to 12 hours a day.
MELTDOWN STRAIN SERIES
After an endless series of failures, state-owned electricity company Eskom announced a virtually unprecedented level of load shedding as its energy production capacity was cut to the bone. On Sunday, September 18, the crisis took on a whole new dimension. They have learned to deal with it, or rather without it. South Africans have already spent most of the southern winter juggling power outages – usually lasting two to four hours a day. The electricity grid in Africa's leading industrial powerhouse is on the brink of collapse. In front of the Eskom power plant in Hendrina, South Africa, on February 22, 2018. The continent's major industrial power plant has been plagued by repeated power outages due to a strict maintenance schedule on this aging network.īy Mathilde Boussion (Johannesburg (South Africa) correspondent) Published on Septemat 16h32, updated at 12h26 on September 27, 2022 South Africa's main power grid is on the verge of meltdown
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