Eskom plans to reduce power cuts after diesel ship berths

South Africa’s state-owned power utility will reduce power outages over the weekend after diesel deliveries for its open-cycle gas turbines started.

Fuel was delivered to PetroSA’s facility in Mossel Bay on the south coast after the vessel berthed Thursday morning, Eskom said in statement on Twitter. The diesel will be transported to the nearby Gourikwa open-cycle gas turbine station and to Ankerlig, just north of Cape Town, throughout the weekend.

The utility said late on Wednesday that it would have to cut 4 000 megawatts from the grid until its stocks of the fuel are replenished. It ran low because the fuel vessel couldn’t berth due to rough seas. Eskom now plans to reduce so-called loadshedding to stage 3, where it removes 3 000 megawatts, from 5 a.m. on October 1.

Cash-strapped Eskom is running the diesel turbines to supplement generation capacity decimated by breakdowns at its aged coal-fired plants that provide the majority of the country’s electricity. It may need to spend as much as R2.4 billion a month on the fuel, according to presentation to lawmakers earlier this week.

Thursday was the 115th day of rolling blackouts in 2022. Eskom cuts demand from the national grid to prevent it from collapsing.

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