Only a day after Eskom warned that it might have to implement loadshedding during the week, it announced late on Monday that Stage 1 will come into effect.
#PowerAlert: Eskom regrets to announce Stage 1 #load_shedding to be implemented from 19:00 to 22:00 today due to loss of generating units.
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) September 14, 2015
The warning of potential loadshedding came as maintenance work started at a Cahora Bassa hydroelectric plant in Mozambique, which will reduce SA’s electricity imports, and put pressure on the local grid.
On a good day SA gets about 1 500 MW from the plant, but the maintenance work will leave only 650 MW coming into South Africa on a daily basis.
To put into perspective how much of a loss of 850 MW is electricity is, when Eskom embarked on its “maintenance festival” back in July, it only had 1 500MW of breathing room should something have gone wrong.
[Image – CC by 2.0/Rafal Kiermacz]