Cape Town - The power utility Eskom has confirmed that it implemented Stage 7 load shedding during evening peak demand periods on Tuesday and Wednesday.
This comes amid Wednesday’s night announcement that Eskom’s chief executive Andre de Ruyter will be stepping down with immediate effect.
According to MyBroadband, the power utility, led by general manager Isabel Fick, decides on the level of load shedding and gives orders to customers to decrease demand.
MyBroadband further reported that Eskom spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha has consistently posted Eskom's evening peak statistics since he was appointed as the company’s spin doctor in 2020, and his posts over the last two nights indicated that the system operator had instituted load shedding of over 7 000 megawatts (MW).
By the system operator’s own definitions, that is Stage 8 load shedding and each stage represents an additional 1 000MW of demand removed from the grid.
Stage 1 load shedding is up to 1 000MW, Stage 2 up to 2 000MW, Stage 6 up to 6 000MW, and so forth.
As a result, Stage 8 is when 7 000MW to 8 000MW of demand is removed from the grid.
On Tuesday, the evening peak which happened at 7.15pm, the system operator was load shedding 7 045MW.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, it shed 7 092MW from the grid, with the peak occurring at 7.14pm.
He told MyBroadband that the system operator’s job is to protect the stability and integrity of the power system.
“As you know, I publish the statistics after the evening peak to give the actual data at a particular point in the evening, the highest demand period,” he said.
He clarified that the load shedding stages announced by Eskom in advance, is an estimate of the amount of generating capacity in deficit for the time period covered.
“However, the system is managed continuously, in real-time, to ensure there’s sufficient supply to meet demand all the time and this is being done by reducing the demand to match available supply at all times, while maintaining a buffer reserve,” he said.
Mantshantsha said that, at times, the demand could exceed the previously announced load shedding estimate.
“As you will see in the figures, it is accurate to say at that particular time last night, load shedding was Stage 7.
“Eskom is currently load shedding at Stage 6, as previously announced,” he said.
Mantshantsha said that according to the system operator's public statistics, there is a significant increase in power demand as the evening peak approaches, which is presently around 7pm every night. However, demand rapidly drops off after that.
“Therefore, the system operator only needs to increase load shedding during a brief window, some time between 7pm and 8pm,” he said.
Mantshantsha further continued that he does not know how long Stage 7 load shedding lasted, but it was less than an hour.
“Demand usually picks up substantially, starting from 6pm, so the 7 000MW threshold would have been exceeded just before the 7pm peak,” he said.
IOL