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South Africa: Power Cuts 'Will Allow Eskom to Survive Winter'
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
19 March 2008
Posted to the web 19 March 2008
Siseko Njobeni
Johannesburg
THE soon-to-be implemented scheduled load shedding will give Eskom enough capacity to survive winter, the company said yesterday.
The recent cold weather demonstrated the vulnerability of the national electricity grid as the utility could not cope with the increase in demand.
A number of Eskom's generators tripped in the past three days.
Spokeswoman Ra'eesah Waja said yesterday the "rationing" phase, including scheduled load shedding for consumers who had not cut consumption by the required 10%, would give Eskom the capacity to go through winter. "There are no planned maintenance shutdowns in winter," Waja said.
Eskom started emergency load shedding on Monday after a 3% rise in demand. The group said this would continue until tomorrow, but it expected an increase in capacity at the long weekend as heavy users were expected to close businesses.
News yesterday that nine generators had tripped sent mining shares on the JSE tumbling amid fear of a repeat of January's mining industry shutdown. These fears were allayed when Eskom announced that two of the generators were back in service. Two more would be repaired last night.
The power utility resumed emergency load shedding earlier this week with power demand rising because of the cold and wet weather.
BHP Billiton said the rain had affected its domestic and export coal supply and coal handling negatively.
Waja said some of the power supplier's units were not producing at full load as it struggled to get wet coal into its plants.
Meanwhile, trade union Solidarity threatened a class action yesterday on behalf of workers if Eskom went ahead with plans to reduce power supplies to mines.
The union said workers who lost jobs "due to negligence on the part of Eskom and/or government, will, on the face of it, be entitled to claim damages.
"Reduced electricity almost certainly results in job losses. Power provision at 90% of normal consumption can cost as many as 20 000 jobs."
BHP Billiton said last week it was in talks with unions at its Bayside, Richards Bay, smelter on possible job losses after its decision to close part of its plant to achieve the required 10% cut in electricity consumption.
Solidarity said that it had resolved to request President Thabo Mbeki to appoint an independent task team "to support him in seeking a solution to the electricity crisis".
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"The solution now has to come from outside expertise. Eskom could not manage to resolve the problem."
And will the people "survive" that Eskom's Winter survival ???
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