Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Blackouts hit the country yet again

By Chanel September
11 December 2007




Power outages experienced in parts of the Western Cape and throughout the country have resulted in consumers having to use their electricity sparingly, through the cause of the festive season.

According to a statement released by Eskom load shedding could last for the rest of the week, as the capacity shortage is mainly due to high levels of maintenance and unexpected plant failures.

Due to energy fuel constraints, Eskom has had to conserve energy at its gas-fired power stations.

Gas turbines are used together with other emergency resources such as buying back power from large industrial customers.

“With 24% of our total generating plant on unplanned and planned outages, we are approximately 2500 MW short on demand,” says Eskom’s Managing Director, Erica Johanson.

A fixed load-shedding schedule is available on www.eskom.co.za and customers can direct other queries to Eskom's call-centre on 08600-Eskom (08600-37566).

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