State-owned power utility Eskom on Tuesday declared emergency regulatory protocol, which requires key industrial users to cut 10% of their energy load and consumers to “urgently” switch off nonessential appliances, as the national grid edged closer to overcapacity.
The power utility said the national grid was “severely” constrained on the back of the loss of additional generating units from Eskom’s power station fleet and the extensive use of emergency reserves.
“Eskom is now following the protocol in terms of its emergency procedures to secure the power system,” the parastatal said in a statement.
As a “precautionary measure”, load shedding arrangements would be published on Eskom’s website (http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za/), echoing the measures taken during the national rolling blackouts during the 2008 power crisis when the national grid nearly collapsed, forcing mines and smelters to shut for days.
The power cuts lasted hours at a time and the disruptions associated with this were reported to have cost the economy an estimated R50-billion.
“While we will make every effort to avoid load shedding, we are hopeful that by applying these measures we will achieve the required load reduction necessary to protect the national grid,” Eskom said.
The utility said the load shedding schedules would only be used for the duration of the constraint.