ESKOM TO IMPLEMENT LOAD SHEDDING TO AVOID BLACKOUT IN SA

South Africa Electricity distributor Eskom is planning to implement load shedding in the nation to prevent a catastrophic blackout.

The plan was made know by Eskom Chief Executive Officer, Andre de Ruyter as he noted that the power utility is obligated to implement load shedding in order to avoid a total system failure.

Speaking during the announcement De Ruyter said; We would have the system equivalent of cardiac arrest. We have 50Hz going to zero and then to restart that system will take a period of between two to three weeks which clearly is a catastrophic event that we want to avoid at all costs. Therefore the implementation of load shedding is an effort to prevent this catastrophic blackout.

“So it is extremely unfortunate but it is the prudent step that our system operator takes and in this instance we have had to take this decision to implement Stage 2 load shedding.”

The sudden announcement is surprising as during last Friday state of the system media briefing, the utility said that the generating system was performing well.

However, Eskom’s Chief Operations Officer, Jan Oberholzer, explained that within hours of that briefing, multiple unexpected breakdowns over a period of 36 hours which led to a point where the energy utility could not meet demand.

He also noted that “The risk (of load shedding) remains if we have a bad patch that we have had the last five or six days, we will definitely find ourselves wanting. But we will do whatever we can to make sure that we do not put the country through the strain of load shedding. We fully understand the mandate we have to the economy of the country.

SOURCE: SA News