Eskom’s acting CEO Calib Cassim said South Africans could expect a difficult winter, with load shedding going as far Stage 8.
Cassim, who gave an update on the electricity grid on Thursday, said the country was entering the season with 3,000 megawatts less than in 2022.
He said three power generation units at Kusile and one at Koeberg were offline.
The good news, said Cassim, Eskom is in a better financial position.
“Within the budgets that are allocated in total for this calendar year, generation has [R20 billion] available to manage the demand.
But Eskom’s generation group executive, Bheki Nxumalo, said this would still be a tough winter for residents.
“Another factor that impacts what happens daily is the unpredictability of the performance. In terms of capacity that’s available, as we’ve indicated, we are starting on the back-foot.
“There is less capacity available because of Kusile 1, 2, 3, as well as Koeberg 1, which is on outage and unfortunately will not be available during winter.”
SOUTH AFRICANS MUST RESORT TO USING COMMON SENSE TO KEEP WARM
One energy expert reckoned that South Africans would mostly need to resort to common sense measures to keep warm this winter as rolling power cuts continued unabated.
Citizens battled Stages 4 and 6 power cuts this week.
Eskom said it was conducting a tight balancing act to ensure the country didn’t reach higher stages of outages.
Energy expert at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) Neil Stacey said many people had the option of gas heating, but there were some risks and potential health negative effects associated with that, particularly if ventilation isn’t good.
He said possible measures included keeping houses well insulated and ensuring there were no gaps underneath doors.
But there were some heat losses that were not as obvious.
“One of the underestimated ways that we lose heat is in the air that we exhale. The energy that goes into making the air warm gets removed from our body, so once you’ve covered most of your exposed skin, your biggest loss of heat from your body after that is in the air that you exhale.
“So, all those base coverings that we’ve packed away now that Covid isn’t prevalent could serve a new purpose in keeping us warm.”
-EWN
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