Cape Town - With no end in sight to Stage 6 load shedding, which was implemented on Sunday, Eskom has applied to energy regulator Nersa to hike tariffs by 32% on April 1 next year.
At a media briefing on Sunday, the power utility announced that Stage 6 load shedding will remain in place until sufficient generating units were returned and emergency reserves were protected again.
As a result, Eskom confirmed there would be high stages of load shedding this week.
Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said: “The system has been under pressure the past week. This has caused us to run our reserves, our diesel and our dams, very high. We are in a situation now where we urgently need to replenish those reserves to maintain an adequate safety buffer as we are required to do by the grid code.”
Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said a total of 45 units broke down in the past seven days; 38 of them were returned to service, but some were running at high risk as there was no other option at the moment.
Stage 6 was exacerbated by the tripping of two generation units, one at Kusile and one at Kriel power stations.
Another issue was liquidity to buy diesel. De Ruyter said in the past five months of this financial year, Eskom had already burnt diesel worth about R7.7 billion, which was the budget for the whole year. This prompted Eskom CFO Calib Cassiem to make an additional R500 million available for diesel purchases.
Given the current performance of Eskom’s coal fleet, De Ruyter said there was a risk of going beyond Stage 6 of load shedding this week.
“We had an urgent board meeting on Saturday with (Public Enterprises) Minister Pravin Gordhan and we discussed further steps. Today we will be approaching the market to procure whatever megawatts are available on an urgent basis. We think we can get about 1 000MW from available generation capacity,” De Ruyter said.
This would not be immediately available, but it could be added to the grid in about two weeks, he said.
Eskom said depreciation of assets, increases in diesel and fuel oil prices, and the cost implications of independent power producers all contributed to its application for a 32.02% hike.
Eskom submitted its MYPD5 application on June 2, 2021, and requested to be allowed an amount of R335bn and R365bn for financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25 respectively.
Tariff determination will be completed by November 7, Nersa said.
In the meantime, Eskom appealed to municipalities, business and households to use electricity sparingly and assess where which non-critical loads could be switched off.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde also convened a provincial cabinet meeting on Sunday to plan how the province could ensure services continue across all critical platforms during the high stages of load shedding.
The City was unable to lighten the load and shield customers from the high stages of load shedding due to the required statutory inspection of the Steenbras plant.
Energy Mayco member Beverley van Reenen said: “Increased levels of Eskom’s load shedding means that the City’s ability to mitigate against it is significantly reduced.
“In addition, the City’s infrastructure is at risk of vandalism and theft as criminals take an opportunity to break infrastructure and steal electricity cables while the power is off.”