Despite multiple unit trips at three power stations, causing the grid to lose 3 535 MW, Eskom managed to avoid implementing load-shedding on Tuesday, which the State power utility attributed to the resilience of the power system that it had been building over the past eight months.
Eskom explained that, owing to the interconnectedness of the system, an earth fault at Tutuka power station’s high-voltage yard had resulted in three Majuba power station units and two Drakensberg pumped storage units going offline.
Owing to a separate and unrelated incident, Tutuka Unit 3 also tripped.
Eskom used five diesel generators in its effort to stabilise the power grid.
One of the Majuba units, two of the Drakensberg units and one Tutuka unit had been brought back on the grid by the afternoon. In addition, Matla Unit 1, Grootvlei Unit 4 and Camden Unit 5, which had been on opportunity maintenance, were returned to service to support the grid.
The remaining units were expected to be back online before the evening’s peak period.
Eskom currently had 33 840 MW to meet a forecast peak demand of 30 911 MW.