Eskom delays critical Koeberg outage after warnings of imminent stage 7

3 years ago 1

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Power utility Eskom has delayed the scheduled outage of a Koeberg nuclear power station unit to afford the utility “some time” to stabilise its power system.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha confirmed the development in a short statement to the media on Thursday morning.

Koeberg Unit 1 was planned to go offline from Wednesday night for six months as part of a critical refurbishment programme that includes refuelling and the replacement of its steam generators to prolong its lifetime.

According to Eskom’s latest update, it will now only be taken offline on Friday afternoon.

The delay in downtime comes after energy analyst Ted Blom warned that load-shedding would increase from stage 6 to stage 7 should Eskom proceed with the planned outage and not bring other generation back online.

“We are on the cusp of record-breaking stage 7 load-shedding,” Blom said.

Blom added that further breakdowns would push the country past stage 7.

Koeberg Unit 1 has a maximum capacity of 970MW but can typically produce up to 930MW, close to the amount of electricity demand shed during one stage of rotational power cuts.

Late on Wednesday afternoon, Mantshantsha told eNCA that it was currently only providing around 659MW of power because its output had gradually been reduced in the past two months leading up to its planned refurbishment.

Eskom sipping on diesel despite depleting budget

Eskom’s evening peak demand statistics for Wednesday night painted a bleak picture of the power system’s current status.

The utility had just 23,394MW of generating capacity available during peak demand.

Despite shedding roughly 6,477MW at the time and cutting a further 447MW through interruptible load supply from large power users, it had to run 17 open-cycle gas turbines (OCGTs).

That was to keep up with the peak demand of 28,843MW while ensuring there was a safe buffer to avoid destabilising the grid.

What makes the high reliance on OCGTs more concerning is that Eskom has said the depletion of its budget on diesel used to run them means it would only operate them during extreme emergencies.

According to its current schedule, Eskom plans to continue stage 6 load-shedding until 05:00 in the morning on Friday, 9 December 2022, before switching to stage 5 until Saturday morning.