By Daanyaal Matthews
Load shedding has made a return to the Republic of South Africa, with the nation experiencing Stage 6 this past Sunday. Originally the nation had been informed of load shedding returning at Stage 3; however, this was suddenly shifted to Stage 6 following technical failures at Camden Power Station and Majuba Power Station.
The implementation of stage 6 and the sudden inefficiencies at major power stations prompted an impromptu press conference by Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who assured the public that his department was aware of the technical difficulties and repeatedly called for South Africans to remain calm.
According to Professor Hartmut Winkler, an independent energy analyst, the circumstances that led to the failures at the power stations came from routine checkups that wrought havoc due to unforeseen variables:
“It started with a fairly routine operation at Majuba Power Station where they brought back a unit that had been switched off back online again. When they did that, something went wrong in the electrical system just outside the power station and ended up tripping everything. The whole Majuba Power Station, all six units, went down, and that accounted for 4000 MW, and that’s the equivalent of load shedding.”
The professor further explained that this failure at Majuba had a cascading effect throughout the Republic, crafting the conditions that would make load shedding a necessity to maintain grid integrity.
“When that [Majuba Power Station] was sent, it sent a ripple across the grid; the whole country and a couple of other stations were also affected,” states Professor Winkler.
Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has stated that load shedding will continue throughout this week; however, he has remained adamant that the issue will be resolved.
“We are confident we are going to go to conditions of normality. What are those conditions of normality? By the end of the week there will not be load shedding,” said the minister.
