Diesel shipment allows Eskom to ease load shedding
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has announced that his department has found 50 million litres of diesel from PetroSA.
The fuel which will immediately be made available to Eskom.
Gordhan was answering questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday, where MPs asked him if he has taken any steps to find funds to allow Eskom to purchase much-needed diesel.
The struggling power utility has run out of diesel to operate its open cycle gas turbines, which takes 2000MW from the system.
Gordhan told MPs engagements continue to find a more permanent solution.
"We have taken steps to find funding. Firstly, as a matter of urgency, both the Minister of Finance and myself talked on Sunday evening about where money could be found. Secondly, there was a meeting between my delegation and the Minister of Finance's delegation on Monday morning, where a numbers of hours were spent, firstly understanding what some are of the crisis that are being faced by Eskom, which involves not just diesel, but the kind of disruption that Eskom is confronting.
The additional fuel has allowed Eskom to reduce load shedding during the night to stage 3 from stage 4 at 16:00 to 05:00 until Monday morning.
“Daytime loadshedding will be maintained at Stage 2 during 05:00 – 16:00 daily until further notice,” says the utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha
“The continued implementation of load shedding is mainly due to the high levels of breakdowns and the limited emergency generation reserves. Since Wednesday afternoon a generating unit each at Grootvlei, Kendal and Tutuka power stations were taken offline for repairs. Four units at Camden Power Station have also been taken offline to repair a water leak on a line that supplies auxiliary cooling water.”
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