Cape Town - Five generating units at Eskom’s Kriel Power Station experienced electrical faults trips on Monday morning, with the power utility advising of load shedding.
A total of 2 000MW has been removed from the system.
“During the early hours of this morning there were two electrical faults in quick succession in the high voltage yard at Kriel Power Station. The fault, which appears to be related to the heavy mist conditions experienced at the time, is under investigation. The first fault caused units 1, 2 and 3 of the power station to trip, while the second fault tripped units 4 and 5. Unit 6 was off-line at the time,” Eskom said.
While some generation units at other power stations were expected to return to service during the day, these will take time to load to full capacity.
“Should there be any further loss of generation capacity during the day, or some units fail to return to service as anticipated, load shedding may be required to be implemented at short notice.
"We currently have 1 018MW on planned maintenance, while another 17 022MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
“Eskom’s teams are working hard to return as many of the units to service as possible.
“Eskom would like to remind the public that load shedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid. We therefore urge all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly especially during these uncertain times on the power system.
“Eskom will communicate promptly should the necessity arise."
Cape Times