The power utility’s CEO André de Ruyter and COO Jan Oberholzer briefed the media on Tuesday morning on the state of the power grid amid the ongoing stage 4 load-shedding.

De Ruyter says the system has deteriorated overnight and the utility might be forced to ramp up load-shedding.

“As you are aware, we find ourselves in stage 4 load-shedding already. We have had significant deterioration in the system overnight. We saw the loss of ten units, only one of which has returned. And as a consequence, there is a very real risk of having to implement stage 6 load-shedding by evening peak tonight, which means 5 pm,” says De Ruyter.

Meanwhile, COO Jan Oberholzer says the system is running at a massive deficit.

“We currently have a deficit of 1400MW for evening peak, and this includes stage 4 load-shedding. So, this is why it is critical that we make sure that the units at four stations return to service at peak otherwise we will find ourselves in a very difficult situation.

“If we are unable to return those units to the grid by the peak, unfortunately, we will have to implement stage 6 load-shedding by 5pm. If we are implementing stage 6 load-shedding over a period of 24 hours, that means you can expect at least six hours of load-shedding during the day, it can be split by the supplier authority into two or three batches,” says Oberholzer.

Jacaranda News