Eskom implemented Stage 7 loadshedding at some point in the evening this week without following the usual comms procedure the public has grown accustomed to.
Why did Eskom implement Stage 7 loadshedding?
During a week that’s been wrecked by perpetual Stage 6 outages, the national electricity provider quietly increased loadshedding by a single stage without preparing South Africans.
As reported by MyBroadband, Eskom’s spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha confirmed that at around 19:15 on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the power utility’s system operator, headed by general manager Isabel Fick, had relieved more than 7 000MW from the grid.
By definition, each loadshedding stage represents 1 000MW of power shed to provide relief to the overwhelmed national grid.
Therefore, Stage 1 loadshedding suggests that a maximum of 1 000MW is removed from the grid. Stage 2, on the other hand, represents a maximum of 2 000MW shaved off the grid, and so forth.
On Tuesday, 21 February 2023, Mantshantsha’s data, which he tweets daily to reflect a real-time status on the grid, showed that at 19:15, Eskom’s system operator was loadshedding at a peak of 7 045MW.
A day later, at around the same time, Mantshantsha’s data showed that Eskom was loadshedding at a peak of 7 092MW. This indicates that for two consecutive days — and unannounced — Eskom had implemented Stage 7 loadshedding.
Speaking to the cited publication, Mantshantsha not only admitted this as the truth, but he also explained that “the system is managed continuously, in real-time, to ensure there’s sufficient supply to meet demand all the time.”
“As you will see in the figures, it is accurate to say at that particular time last night (Wednesday, 22 February 2023), loadshedding was stage 7…
“This is being done by reducing the demand to match available supply at all times while maintaining a buffer reserve,” he explained.
While careful not to chalk the loadshedding spike off as an anomaly, Mantshantsha further reiterated that evening peaks often see an increase in demand, with 7 000MW of capacity usually observed as a threshold. However, for reasons he could not provide, demand peaked past the threshold earlier than often anticipated.
“Demand usually picks up substantially starting from 18:00, so the 7,000MW [threshold] would have been [exceeded] just before the 19:15 peak,” he told MyBroadband.
Mantshantsha did, however, confirm that currently, Eskom is loadshedding at Stage 6 until further notice.
Check this week’s loadshedding schedule for more details.