Eskom 'technically has gone to stage 8 a few times', claims energy expert

Trails of lights from passing vehicles in Braamfontein, Johannesburg while the area is submerged in darkness due to load shedding.

JOHANNESBURG – Energy expert Matthew Cruise says whether Eskom wants to admit it or not, South Africa hit stage 8 load shedding last week, painting a bleak picture of the power grid ahead of the festive season.

On Sunday, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was at pains to stress that the power utility had not implemented stage 8 load shedding and that the power cuts had only reached stage 6.

However, data published on Friday revealed that Eskom had actually cut over 7,000 megawatts of power from the grid.

Cruise said that by Eskom’s own definition, this was equal to 8 stages of load shedding.

“It’s very interesting that Eskom has still not officially announced that it’s gone to stage 8 yet. In terms of how much megawatts it’s shed from the grid, it technically has gone to stage 8 a few times without implementing the stage 8 hours. Stage 8 was actually implemented in terms of the hours within the city of Johannesburg.”

Cruise said that Eskom once again faced the daunting challenge of maintaining a stable electricity supply as South Africans prepare to put up their Christmas lights.

“It seems the minister is always optimistic and he might be overly optimistic of how the picture is going to go in terms of load shedding reducing and unfortunately, I was at Eskom for 11 years and saw what’s going on the continually declining energy at power stations is the key factor driving this load shedding and that continues.”

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