'Strained' power supply in 2008

2008-01-02 22:40

Johannesburg - Power capacity will be strained in 2008 but gas turbines stations and the reopening of old stations will help to deal with the load, Eskom said on Wednesday.

Sipho Neke from the Eskom media desk said the maintenance of Eskom's generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure would continue until the end of summer, bringing with it the likelihood of further load shedding.

"This is critical to ensure optimum performance of the system (during winter). This means the risk of load shedding remains," said Neke.

"The second week of January 2008 has a pattern of high demand and Eskom will use all emergency energy resources, including the use of gas turbine stations and buying back power from large industrial customers," he said.

Eskom appealed to all South Africans to use electricity sparingly in the peak times of 07:00 to 10:00 and 18:00 to 21:00 and to switch off all non-essential equipment.

"Over the last decade, South Africa has experienced a steady growth in the demand for electricity on the back of robust economic performance," said Neke.

"Eskom is currently operating with a reserve margin of eight to 10% of its total capacity (for emergencies). Eskom expects this margin to decrease over the next five to seven years until new permanent power stations come into operation. Eskom eventually wants a 15% emergency reserve margin."

Neke said Eskom would invest R150bn over the next five years in its power supply infrastructure.

"The biggest percentage will go towards improving generation capacity through building new power stations.

"About 72% of this expenditure will be spent on new power stations, including the return to service of three mothballed power stations.

"About 26% will be spent on transmission and distribution systems," he said.

- SAPA