Eskom finds new excuses to shed its load

(News24) – Eskom has cited power loss from units across the country, including a plant in Mozambique.

In a statement the electricity supply commission said some of the generating units currently offline due to technical faults include Unit 6 of the Duvha power station, which lost 300 MW and Cahora Bassa in Mozambique which also lost 300 MW due to technical faults.

The embattled supplier also blamed cloudy weather conditions which lead to a "further loss of 300 MW from the independent solar power projects in the Northern Cape".

Eskom announced Wednesday that it will implement stage 2 load shedding from 16:00 to 22:00. "This is due to increased electricity demand and a shortage of generation capacity resulting from technical faults at some of our units," it said.

Over the past three days, Eskom has had to implement loadshedding mainly due to a sharp increase in electricity demand in the evenings. On Monday, electricity demand reached a high of 35 274 MW from an average demand of 33 000 MW, it said.

Meanwhile Eskom has notified the public that the power cuts planned for the Emalahleni Local Municipality for 11 June have been postponed. "The municipality has entered into a 24-month payment agreement with Eskom and has paid the committed amount. Going forward, the municipality is expected to comply with the payment agreement conditions, which include payment of accounts in full and on time, and honouring the debt payment terms.

"Payments will be monitored continuously and Eskom reserves the right to implement morning and evening peak interruptions, on a 48-hours' notice, if the municipality defaults on the payment agreement at any stage," Eskom said in a statement.

In April Eskom threatened to pull the plug on the country's top 20 defaulting municipalities who collectively owed the supplier R3.68bn.

http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Eskom/Eskom-blames-weather-faults-for-lost-MW-20150610