By Zandile Khumalo
BAD news as Mzansi people need to brace themselves for eight hours of no electricity.
This is according to Eskom, which revealed it will be implementing load reduction as they continue to battle with illegal connections and cable theft.
According to the power utility, load reduction will be implemented throughout the country for eight hours from Monday, 21 October. The first reduction will happen between 5am and 9am, and again in the evening from 5pm to 10pm.
“Illegal connections and electricity theft burden transformer load. While load shedding remains suspended, Eskom implements load reduction,” the power utility said.
Continued pressure on our transformers and mini-substations due to illegal connections and electricity theft in some areas necessitate load reduction to avoid equipment damage.”
The announcement comes shortly after Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa celebrated over 200 days without load shedding a week ago.
At the time, Ramokgopa attributed stability to the government’s generation operational recovery plan, which has helped improve the energy availability factor (EAF) to 63,96%.
During a media briefing on 21 October, Ramokgopa reiterated that despite Eskom’s load reduction measures, the system’s holding up well. He emphasised that focus is on shifting from simply counting the number of days without load shedding to ensuring interventions are in place to prevent its return.
Ramokgopa also noted that Unplanned Capacity Loss Factor (UCLF) has improved significantly, dropping from 33,79% to 25,5%.
According to Ramokgopa, this indicates that the system’s health is improving.
“If you compare the UCLF recorded in the past seven days, you can see that we have been averaging about 10 500MW of capacity restored, which wasn’t available due to various reasons like units failing or units failing to perform at their optimal capacity. If you were to compare this to last year around the same time, you will see an improvement of 5 000MW, which is significant from where we started. That’s why we have been able to keep the lights on for a considerable time,” Ramokgopa said.
While he said this is not an achievement but a step in the right direction, Ramokgopa stated that the end goal is to have no load shedding
Daily Kasi News 