Ok …
Gasoline …
Now all we want to see is when and where the equipment is installed, and that it is maintained for the years it can run … nothing more, just that.
I wonder which containers they are in amoungst the 100000+ sitting offshore at our ports 
Hey, Cpt has cleared its backlog …
Seems like big drama on the way …
Comment I got…
fund hulle om met hulle glorified diesel powered water fountain te speel
Indeed, it does seem that they are willing to dig into reserves when a plant that was out on maintenance doesn’t come back on time. They will bridge the gap, in the hopes that they will get that plant back before the reserves run too low. Then, at some point, they realise the “koël is deur die kerk” (there is no way out) and then they go to a higher level of load shedding.
I think this is actually okay, to some extent. Diesel is constantly being replenished, while it is also being burned, and there is some room for dipping into those reserves a bit. That’s what the reserves are there for. If a plant trips, and you need 45 minutes to arrange a reduction in load (aka institute load-shedding), you need to be able to start a highly dispatchable generator (such as Diesel or hydro).
But I do wonder, sometimes, whether they aren’t courting disaster by perhaps dipping a bit too low? I would hope not. Above article also is BT… I no longer trust them to be balanced about these things. But they are quoting an energy analyst, and those guys usually have a point, even if they also have their biases.
(It’s been a while since we heard from Ted Blom? What’s he up to these days? 
).
Haha. That is indeed an interesting way to look at pumped storage, backed by Diesel.
The speed at which we are changing stages are making me a bit worried. Ive never been one of the grid collapse believers. But im starting to wonder…
The thing (maintenance) nobody is talking about at them OGCTs, that will catch them, and soon. The design of those were specced for intermittent cycle, not constant (likely a few 100s of % more than design specs). They, just like the coal plant, are being operated as a last resort and run hard, way beyond spec…
Watch that disaster unfold… When, who nows, any day now is my guesstimate.
HardeGroetnis
Had that thought for some time…
Someone please provide a heads-up on Koeberg.
Did they get that unit back on line??
Been my pet B&M for a long time now … on top of wot, (author’s freedom) 12.5h load-shedding per 24h hidden in all the flip-flopping between 3-6 over said period.
Just amazing how fast plants come back online, drop off the grid or hydro/OGCTs are switched on/off.
Magic I tell you. Magic.
Ps. I know it is “complicated”, but in all the impressive juggling, something “feels off”, “panicky”.
Yes.
But it makes no difference, cause unit 2 will go off, so zero benefit. Joke is, assuming both Units are back online, for now, we have LS escalation. So yeah, there is that.
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“We had the same situation last year over December (when they ran out of their diesel budget as well) and had to implement near continuous Stage 6 load shedding, so it looks like we are in the same boat this year as well,” Le Roux said.
&
Kusile Unit 1 returned to service last month and followed the recommissioning of the power station’s Unit 3 at the end of September. On Tuesday, Eskom announced that Kusile Unit 2 had been synchronised to the grid, two days before the planned return date. This means a combined 2,400MW has been added back to the grid, which is equivalent to about two stages of load shedding.
“It doesn’t seem to have helped. We’re sitting at stages 3, 4, 5 and 6 even with units 1, 2 and 3 at Kusile on, so there are clearly other problems that are worsening the situation,” Yelland said.
Does this power get used first by the Western Cape?? I mean how much power is lost in transmission by sending any up north!
The 2400MW the article talks about is Kusile, which is already up North. I think you are asking about Koeberg, which is a mere 900MW (per unit, so about one stage of load shedding each). That energy will indeed be used first in the Western Cape, it will mean we need to import less from up North (where the rest of the stations are), and in that way it helps us and them, and avoids the transmission costs.
It is not as if it has a dedicated line to some central point and another one coming back
To expand a bit on my previous comment, a note about ownership. Koeberg is owned by Eskom (as is Palmiet, another pumped storage system in the Western Cape), which means they may well decide to ship that power to other parts of the country. In other words, just because those stations are here, and transmission losses would technically mean it makes more sense to use that power here, I doubt Eskom will allow the Western Cape to sit at a lower load-shedding stage (or, conversely, Mpumalanga!) just because power stations are in closer proximity. In other words, I do think that at times, the overall load-shedding stage together with usage patterns and the weather, means that one province is probably offsetting the others.
Steenbras, on the other hand, is operated by Cape Town. They can and do use that to make things easier for themselves, and run 1 or 2 stages of load-shedding lower.
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Now listen to this vid …
More detail here:
Now FWIW, it was on an article from MyBroadband where I got that heads-up from … 
… elections are coming.
You posted that link about how China gave us a number of no-strings-attached generators ranging from 6kW to 200kW. This court ruling is the reason…
Judges/Courts simply apply the law. The way the law is written behooves the government to do such things to ensure people get medical care. IANAL, but pretty sure going the other way would be unconstitutional.
Soooo… elections probably are involved, in the sense that I expect this gift to be used as a campaigning tool (while hush-hushing where it comes from and the reason it even had to happen)… but also… this is just business as usual. They had to make a plan. They kinda-sorta did.
Maybe, or the China thing is one matter, the court now ruling in finality that the ANC fooked up properly over decades, an unrelated matter.
That a political spin can be applied to the China thing, most definitely. Optics and politics are the same thing.
That article is from May. Didn’t we discuss it over here? Or am I imagining things?
The one that caught my attention, goes back to May yes, is few hours oild:
Coffin and nail come to mind.