Eskom ... is there ANY chance? In CPT there is

[TheTerribleTriplet]

Relax people, they’ve got it covered… from sabotage being investigated to carefully managed by Eskom … our Gov officials is onnit man! Relax!

Beurtkrag ‘onder beheer’, sê minister | Maroela Media

Sorted see …

[fredhen]

Yeah, that is what was mentioned by our minister:

Eskom working to address boiler tube leaks - Ramokgopa

Although of course they’re sort of saying it’s the manufacturer’s fault, but it depends on how you read it as it might also be that they’re working with manufacturers to have more tolerance:

He said that the utility was working with the manufacturers of the units to address this.

“The people who know the DNA of these units have been assigned this responsibility so that we are able to, if you like, do profile, root cause analysis, be able to diagnose and then provide a prognosis.”

[mmaritz]

What do they say - Garbage in => Garbage Out

Boiler tube failures in Eskom coal fired power stations

[TheTerribleTriplet]

Saw this … ignore the source, “daar is 'n rokie wat hier trek” …

South Africans are dropping Eskom and going off-grid – but there’s a major...

[plonkster]

Summary: They don’t really have a legal framework for houses in the middle of towns and cities who suddenly DOESN’T want a grid connection, and also don’t want to pay for it. There is also no national legislation for this, so each town/city does their own thing. A large scale moving away will be a disaster for some (since they cross-subsidise things from electricity), so don’t expect it to come easy.

Did I get that about right ?

[mmaritz]

Interesting: Do have someone in the forum from Eskom

This was posted 52min ago, about an hour after I posted the same… AI maybe

[Sarel.Wagner]

Minister, kom ek vertel jou, these pipes are there from way way back when. They were working just fine when the old Eskom was looking after them, no bad pipes and no blaming the manufacturers. But we guess that nowadays goes with the territory, no accountability, at all. Old Eskom managed the plant properly, did preventative maintenance and all that. Also did not lie to everybody and on top of that had no blackouts forever.

You and the thieving people are the problem.

PatetieseGroetnis

[Richard_Mackay]

The minister says:
Ramokgopa said Eskom had not been receiving power from solar PV and wind generators because of climatic conditions, which had also contributed to escalated load shedding.

As soon as anyone has the real story for this stage 6 LS please let us know.
The last time this happened there was a showdown and the private sector was then allowed to supply unlimited power to the grid. (Or is Mr. de Ruyter misleading us in his book??)

[TheTerribleTriplet]

Interesting:

Ramaphosa affirms state commitment to mega transmission grid build

… and then …

'Billions in cheap green energy funding not used because Eskom loath to take...

Sigh. Not even going to bother to look into this behind the scenes …

[mmaritz]

Cape Town rates/prices discussion moved here…Cape Town pays for Domestic Solar Power - #44 by mmaritz

[TheTerribleTriplet]

Janee, In CPT, there is a chance …

World Bank regional head visits City’s Steenbras power plant with the view to deepening support

City of Cape Town Link

• Demand management programmes:

1. UNDER WAY: Large Power Users (LPUs) curtailment
2. NEWLY LAUNCHED: Power Heroes: a voluntary programme for households and small commercial customers that enables remote switching of power-hungry appliances such as geysers and pool pumps.

• NEW: IPP 3 tender issued: The total capacities envisaged 300 MW of dispatchable/ reserve power capacity and 200 MW of self-dispatchable power capacity. The contract period is three years, and is subject to a Section 33 process and the closing date for tender submissions is 8 April 2024.

• UNDER WAY: Embedded IPP renewable energy (200MW) – with the goal to diversify electricity suppliers for more cost-effective electricity

• UNDER WAY: Dispatchable IPP Programme (up to 500MW) – a key load-shedding mitigation mechanism, with 10-year power contracts for dispatchable power plants

• UNDER WAY: Wheeling (up to 350MW) – a City-enabled means of third parties selling electricity to each other using existing grid infrastructure

• DONE: Private Small-Scale Embedded Generation (up to 100 MW) mechanism – Residential and commercial customers are enabled to generate electricity for their own use and be credited for excess generation

• UNDER WAY: City-owned SSEG (up to 20MW) from the Atlantis plant (7MW) and solar PV at City facilities (13MW)

[Village_Idiot]

seeing that this was mentioned previously in the thread - at least the Karoo outage is apparently restored

[Bobster]

Cheeky so-and-sos had the temerity to tell residents to disconnect their suicide plugs.

[TheTerribleTriplet]

Yeah right ok …

“We stopped stage 8 load-shedding” — Solar power producers slam electricity...

During a media briefing on Sunday, Ramokgopa said that non-performing renewables were among the factors that caused the escalation of load shedding to stage 6.

…

“Without the renewable energy production, stage 7 or 8 would likely have been implemented.”

But his issue is getting worse … no time to play “catchup”.

Eskom in a spiral of doom

Ballim explained that this creates a major issue for Eskom as the lack of safety margin means that when there are unplanned outages, the country has to be plunged into load-shedding.

To avoid this situation, Eskom has not conducted sufficient maintenance over the past few years to create a margin of safety and increase capacity.

This, in turn, results in further unplanned outages as units are not maintained properly and break down.

In response, Eskom limits its maintenance to reduce the severity of load-shedding South Africa experiences.

Thus, with rising unplanned outages, Eskom is in a vicious cycle of unplanned outages, reducing its capacity for planned maintenance, which in turn results in more unplanned failures in the future.

This cycle is shown in the graph below, courtesy of Ballim and Standard Bank. The graph emphasises the widening gap between unplanned outages and maintenance.

[TheTerribleTriplet]

Epic …

“Eskom should have been fixed a long time ago and returned to its original state. All it needed was money, skills, and people. Instead, we are having political discussions and long lectures on what should be done.”
…
While Ramokgopa is correct that Eskom is performing more maintenance compared to last year, this claim is disingenuous as it ignores that high levels of planned maintenance also include failures to return units on time, which should be reflected as breakdowns.

Government avoiding Eskom’s real problem

[plonkster]

@TheTerribleTriplet

planned maintenance also include failures to return units on time

So glad for the confirmation on this, I was wondering myself. It is easy to say that more maintenance is being done, but when a unit fails to come back on time, then technically that’s no longer planned maintenance. It is now an unplanned outage. Probably with some margin, to be kind, and we always want to be kind, even to people we are angry with. Right?

[Richard_Mackay]

The classic phrase ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ come to mind.
I’m always frustrated with the politician’s utterances when we hit stage 6 LS as we did recently. We, the end users have to endure endless claptrap until some credible soul clarifies the situation.

[TheTerribleTriplet]

@plonkster

… we always want to be kind, even to people we are angry with. Right?

Yes, we want to, we do, we are.

BUT … it works in 3’s:

1. We all make mistakes. Learn from it, and carry on.
2. Same mistake 2nd time, ok, so you are a slow learner, we understand. Let’s talk slower, he says as he types slower.
3. 3rd time the same mistake … you are being stupid now. No more pills for you, as there are none.

After 20+ years … no, it is past that point 3.

[Sarel.Wagner]

Agree, at this point they deserve no such kindness, just a boot up their collective arses.

GatvolGroetnis