Warning about load shedding: South Africa is set for a chilly, gloomy winter

According to Alan Winde, premier of the Western Cape province, a delay in completing repairs at Eskom’s lone nuclear power unit is concerning as South Africa enters winter, when electricity consumption increases.

Construction on the Koeberg facility north of Cape Town has stagnated and is running weeks behind schedule, contributing to energy shortages that have resulted in regular power outages to keep the system from going completely dark.

“We can’t be behind right now,” Winde said. “We’ve got to be on time, on budget.”

The premier met with South African Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa last weekend, who stated that a foreign investor had showed interest in developing a 3,000-megawatt gas-fired plant in the Western Cape.

The idea is still in its early stages, but if approved, fuel could be delivered to the plant site through a pipeline from Saldanha Bay, 155 kilometres north of Cape Town, according to Winde in a phone interview.

Clyde Mallinson, director of Virtual Energy and Power, warned earlier this month that South Africans are in for a cold, dark winter, and that Eskom must raise the coal fleet’s capacity factor (CF) to at least 50% to avoid significant amounts of load-shedding during the winter months.

If the electricity provider is unable to do so, the country would almost certainly see stage 6 load shedding during peak winter in June.

The analyst pointed out the Eskom’s coal fleet managed to only function at 40% CF in February – if this was the same in June, load shedding would have to be moved up to stage 11, a level that does not currently exist on the existing schedules.

Eskom is collaborating with Nersa to develop new load shedding schedules.

Troubles at Eskom

However, Eskom’s criminal problems persist.

On March 16, seven intruders fired numerous bullets at an Eskom employee’s car before kidnapping him, according to the struggling power provider.

After being freed south of Johannesburg, the employee was brought to a hospital for treatment. The police are looking into the event.

The act of violence was only one in a long line of criminal occurrences at the company, including documented cases of corruption, theft, and threats of violence, many of which are currently under investigation.

However, Ramokgopa has downplayed ideas of corruption being at the basis of Eskom’s troubles, infuriating South Africans.

On his recent tour of Eskom’s power station fleet, he stated that the company’s problems were not due to corruption, but rather to technicalities and failures.

But, Eskom’s largest labour union rejected the claim.

“We are categorically and emphatically disagreeing with the minister’s version that corruption in Eskom does not play any role” in persistent electricity shortages, the National Union of Mineworkers, said in a statement.

The union claimed that plant malfunctions are caused by the use of low-quality parts obtained at exorbitant costs with the assistance of some Eskom personnel.

Eskom has documented examples of contract worker corruption and sabotage, and the Special Investigative Unit and the Hawks have several active investigations relating to this, proving the minister’s allegations to be plainly incorrect.

Eskom restarted power shedding this week after temporarily pausing rotating blackouts on Sunday.

Until further notice, load shedding is now cycling between stages 1 and 2 during the day (05h00 to 16h00) and evening (16h00 to 05h00).