[miningmx.com] – SOUTH Africa faced the prospect of continued load-shedding as state-owned power utility Eskom struggled against the effects of low coal stocks, said the country’s minister of public enterprises, Malusi Gigaba.
City Press quoted Gigaba in an address to parliament that: “It is anticipated this emergency will continue until after the evening peak tonight (March 6), and we will continue to manage the system’.
“Over the last week, Eskom depleted its dry coal stockpiles at some power stations due to the rainy weather conditions. This contributed to severe system constraints due to lower output as a result of wet and poor quality coal,’ he said.
Eskom said on February 6 that blackouts would commence – the first since 2008 – on an rotational basis with households as well as intensive energy users such as mining firms, bearing the brunt as roughly a quarter of Eskom’s capacity was down.
This was owing to a combination of factors including maintenance, low power imports, and the inability of Eskom to afford to buy power from independent power producers even though it was operating high cost open cycle gas turbines.
Mining companies had initially been asked to cut consumption 20% but this was later amended to a 10% cut – a level that gold producers Sibanye Gold and Gold Fields said was manageable with no effect on production.
Edna Molewa, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, said yesterday that the situation could not yet be deemed a crisis.
“For now, we haven’t received any information that says there’s any negative impact that will be realised,’ Molewa said.
“We expect the rains will subside and, as they subside, obviously we’ll be back to normal. That’s the timeline we’re more or less expecting to have a return to normality,’ Molewa said in an article by City Press.
