Recent blackouts exacerbated by heavy rains: Eskom

The Acting Group Executive for Generation at Eskom, Thomas Conradi, says recent challenges in power generation were exacerbated by heavy rains in the country.

Eskom’s executives gave an update yesterday on the state of the grid, saying they hope to de-escalate Stage 6 rolling blackouts from tomorrow night.

Conradie says coal challenges led to some of the units at Lethabo Power Station being shut down.

“At Lethabo, we’ve had a situation that we unfortunately had units being forced to shut down and not being able to return. Two of those (are) as a result of coal constraints. We’ve experienced excessive rain in the area…and what also aggravated the situation is the Vaal River – the border of the mining area there- and adjacent to the mining pit – that with the very high levels of the Vaal River system, there’s still a real risk of flooding and a flood warning for the pit.”

Plans to downgrade blackouts 

Meanwhile, the embattled power utility says the electricity system remains highly constrained and unreliable after breakdowns at multiple generating units which have prompted Stage 6 load shedding.

Eskom uses diesel to power turbines that are used as a back-up to its coal fired power stations – most of which are aging and require constant maintenance.

Outgoing CEO, Andre De Ruyter, says they hopes to reduce blackouts to stage four by Thursday.

More details on Eskom’s media briefing in the report below: 

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