Rolling blackouts a possibility
Following the collapse of a silo at Eskom’s Majuba power station in Mpumalanga, a very real possibility exists of continuous load shedding throughout the week in ciites across Gauteng, including Boksburg.
According to Eskom, the metro is currently in stage 2 load shedding and has requested Ekurhuleni metro to reduce the load on its electricity network.
The metro has been undertaking this load reduction exercise by following the load shedding schedules available on the municipality’s website.
Residents are urged to treat all electrical network points and equipment as electrically alive at all times.
It is expected that load shedding will continue for at least this week.
Load shedding occurred on Sunday to ensure South Africa’s power grid did not suffer a blackout, Eskom said.
This followed the collapse of a coal silo at the Majuba power station early on Saturday afternoon, thereby severely impacting the station’s ability to produce power.
Steve Lennon, group executive for sustainability, told journalists at Eskom’s Megawatt Park headquarters in Johannesburg that it was essential a blackout be avoided “at all costs”.
“We’ve been spending today, and continuing to spend today (Sunday), building up our system reserves so that we can go into the week with a secure system.”
Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona said earlier that at 12.30pm on Saturday, staff at Majuba reported a physical crack at the silo.
“The sight of a crack enabled the personnel on site to be evacuated,” Matona said.
At 1.12pm, the silo collapsed, with no injuries reported.
The station’s output was 3 600 megawatts (MW) at the time of the collapse, and reduced to 1 800 MW.
Output had subsequently been reduced to 600 MW, with Eskom using that figure as their base in regards to supply planning.
For the schedule in Boksburg, click on the link below:
