|
Load shedding stopped, for now
14/11/2007 15:57 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Load shedding was stopped temporarily on Wednesday afternoon but was likely to restart towards evening, said Eskom.
Eskom spokesperson Tony Stott said the company had stopped load shedding at about 14:00 on Wednesday when demand for electricity decreased during the afternoon.
However, "as we move into peak hours, we will go into load shedding again...probably at around 17:00 or 18:00."
A number of Eskom's power station units were still on unplanned outages and were having equipment repaired, said Stott.
"It takes usually half a day to three days to do repairs," he said.
He said the repairs were a result of "normal wear and tear" at mechanical power stations.
"We have been running them very hard for the last few days to meet demand for electricity because there is not enough spare capacity."
He said on Wednesday morning about 10% of plants were on planned maintenance and six to seven percent on unplanned maintenance.
This was an improvement on the approximately 11% of units on unplanned maintenance on Tuesday night, said Stott.
"We were able to bring back some units last night."
Load-shedding not short term
Load shedding could be expected on Thursday but may be prevented towards the weekend as demand for electricity decreased.
"Unless other things go wrong, hopefully on Friday we can avoid load shedding."
Stott said South Africans needed to be aware that load shedding was a reality to deal with for the next few years.
"[Load shedding] is not short-term until we construct large power stations." said Stott.
"Demand and supply are very tight."
Stott said load shedding could continue for the next five to seven years.
During this time, Eskom was looking at various sources of energy.
New gas turbines were to be built and a coal power plant was to be completed in 2012, he said.
Renewable energy sources, including a 100 megawatt wind facility in Vredendaal and a solar thermal plant in Upington, were also being considered.
Eskom was trying to get approval for nuclear energy plans scheduled for construction in 2010.
The possibility of importing electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo was also under consideration, said Stott.
- SAPA
|
News
