Ship’s arrival to help ease power cuts

Eskom will reduce power outages at the weekend after diesel deliveries started for its open-cycle gas turbines. Fuel was delivered to PetroSA’s facility in Mossel Bay after the vessel berthed on Thursday morning, Eskom said in a 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.

Eskom will reduce power outages at the weekend after diesel deliveries started for its opencycle gas turbines.

Fuel was delivered to PetroSA’s facility in Mossel Bay after the vessel berthed on Thursday morning, Eskom said in a 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 it would have to cut 4,000MW from the grid until its stocks of the fuel were replenished. It ran low because the fuel vessel could not berth due to rough seas. Eskom now plans to reduce load-shedding to stage 3, where it removes 3,000MW, from 5am 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 SA’s electricity. It may need to spend as much as R2.4bn a month on the fuel, according to presentation to MPs earlier this week.

Thursday was the 115th day of rolling blackouts in 2022.