“Loadshedding is one mechanism to avoid national grid collapse”

Eskom has refuted claims of an imminent collapse of the national electricity grid following frightening opinions on social media.

ESKOM RESPONDS TO SOCIAL MEDIA PANIC POSTS

“Eskom notes with concern various social media posts claiming that the country will soon experience a blackout or collapse of the national electricity grid.”

Eskom

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In a statement to somewhat bring ease to the panic, Eskom refuted these claims and assured South Africans that there are measures in place to avoid the collapse of the power system, loadshedding being one of these mechanisms.

“The risk of a national blackout, while inherent to the operation of a large power system, has an extremely low likelihood of materialising given the implementation of a number of control measures, including loadshedding,” said Eskom.

“The grid is by no means at a higher or imminent risk of a collapse and it would take an unforeseen and sudden sequence of events that results in a cascading collapse of the transmission or generation system, leading to a complete loss of supply across the country,” the power utility added.

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LOADSHEDDING PART OF THE PLANS TO MAINTAIN THE GRID

Eskom further said it has robust contingency plans in place to deal with such an eventuality.
“At the Enlit Africa conference today, interim GCE Calib Cassim reiterated that there are several controls in place and that he doesn’t lose sleep on the issue. This is due to the confidence in the staff at the System Operator who have the competence to manage the tight system for the past three years,” the power utility explained.

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POWER UTILITY TO UPDATE THE COUNTRY ON CONTINGENCY PLANS

Furthermore, Eskom said it continues to drive generation recovery initiatives which are aimed at preventing the current performance from deteriorating in the short-term, and improving the overall performance of the generation fleet in the long-term.
“A State of System media briefing is scheduled this Thursday to give an update of the power system and share the outlook for winter including contingency plans to avoid higher stages of loadshedding,” Eskom concluded.

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