BuaNews (Tshwane)
26 October 2007
Johannesburg — Eskom has been forced to reinstate load shedding on Friday after it lost electricity imports from Mozambique resulting to a number of power stations not operating.
Eskom spokesperson Raeesah Waja said the load shedding is set to continue throughout the day on a rotational basis with areas being affected for about two hours at a time.
"The problem is currently being investigated while several generation units are on unplanned outages," Ms Waja said.
She said all emergency resources, including the use of Eskom's gas turbines and buying back power from large industrial customers have been exploited, though this was not enough to address the shortfall.
In October government and Eskom called for consumers to cut down on electricity use amid power failures being experienced across the country caused by an increase in demand.
At the time, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said South Africans must save as much energy as possible while Eskom was still working to improve its systems.
"Government has put billions of Rands into improving the electricity supply, and while Eskom is still working to improve its systems, the public is urged to use energy in a very responsible way.
Businesses were requested to turn off all non-essential lighting and office equipment during the day and overnight and residential consumers were encouraged to heed the request of Power Alert and the call to use electricity efficiently.
Eskom's ability to meet demand is indicated by the colour coding within the Power Alert Message.
Once the Power Alert message reflects the colour of brown, a manual load shedding process is triggered. The towns which may be affected depends on the level of load shedding required.
Where possible, Eskom tries to avoid load shedding in areas where there are critical and sensitive services like hospitals, economic hubs like shopping centres, strategic product areas and high security areas.
Eskom monitors South Africa's economic growth carefully and calculates how much capacity is needed to supply this growing demand and maintain its essential reserve capacity.
This reserve, designed to cater for unexpected surges in demand, is internationally kept at about
15 percent of total demand. Eskom's reserve capacity has been reduced from this level to about 8 percent, which is insufficient for reliable supply, according to the Eskom website.
"Eskom has been given the go-ahead for building new capacity, but building these plants takes years, so a concerted effort is needed in the interim to stretch the available supply to its maximum."
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