No load shedding is expected in Grahamstown today 9 December. Eskom said, however, that there is a medium risk of rolling blackouts tomorrow 10 December and a high risk on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 December.
No load shedding is expected in Grahamstown today 9 December. Eskom said, however, that there is a medium risk of rolling blackouts tomorrow 10 December and a high risk on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 December.
At its most severe, Stage 3, in Grahamstown, this could mean outages at the following times: Thursday 11 December and Friday 12 December: 2am-4.30am; 6pm to 8.30pm; 10pm to 12.30am.
The schedule changes at a moment's notice as Eskom responds to risks to energy production, including rain which could wet the coal.
Eskom provides daily status updates and forecasts at: http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za
The site states which stage of loadshedding the nation is currently under.
In Stage one, rolling blackouts occur once every other day; Stage 2 sees them daily, and Stage 3 schedules two power outages daily, such as occurred locally on Saturday when power was cut from 6-8.30am and then again from 12-2.30pm.
In his Power System Status Update delivered at Megawatt Park, Sunningdale, on Monday 8 December, Eskom Chief Executive Tshediso Matona said the probability of load shedding remains medium until 15 December, after which it will be low to medium until mid January should no additional problems arise.
This is because demand for electricity is expected to decrease as industry closes for the holidays.
"We will continue to do maintenance on our power stations, the system will remain constrained, but manageable," he said.
An average of 1 800MW is being fed into the national grid per day.
The amount of energy the parastatal is able to produce is perilously close to insufficient for the nation's needs so that when problems occur, such as the collapse in November of a coal storage silo, blackouts and load shedding occur.
Other potential problems include a breakdown in the feeders that take coal to the plant, the risk of rain wetting the coal and the safety of personnel due to the increased use of trucks.
"These risks are being actively managed," Matona said.
As always, Eskom urged South Africans to switch off lights and appliances that aren't being used and to not run non-essential equipment such as pool pumps during peak morning and evening hours.
