JOHANNESBURG – Eskom said that it saw a worst-case scenario of 26 days of load shedding this winter and it would have to burn up to R2.7 billion of diesel to ensure that this did not happen.

Head of transmission, Segomoco Scheepers, on Monday presented the forecast at a briefing on the state of the power utility at Megawatt Park.

He also said that Eskom had electrified more than 92,000 households this year and exceeded its target of 73,000.

The power utility said that its maintenance of power stations had moved up from 9% last year to 12% this year.

But Scheepers said that the risk of load shedding remained.

“If, however, the unavailability is worse and it is up to 12,000MW, we then expect two days of stage one load shedding in the winter period, which is April to the end of August, but we expect to be spending close to R1.2 billion in diesel.”

But it could be worse if unavailability was at 13,000MW.

“The number of load shedding days at stage two increases to 26, which is really an exponential increase and the costs rise to over R2.7 billion, so it’s certainly not the space we want to be in.”

Source: Eyewitness News
Link: https://ewn.co.za/2021/03/15/worst-case-scenario-of-26-days-of-stage-2-power-cuts-this-winter-says-eskom