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Eskom accused of lying about load-shedding

Eskom has denied accusations that it is deliberately deceiving the public on which load-shedding stages it is implementing.

This comes after energy advisor Ted Blom accused Eskom of lying about its load-shedding levels.

Speaking to the SABC, Blom said Eskom had implemented stage 6 load-shedding on Thursday night without informing the public.

He said official Eskom records show the power utility shed in excess of 5,600MW at around 18:30 on 3 September.

Under the current definition, this equates to stage 6 load-shedding, where between 5,000MW and 6,000MW is shed.

According to Blom, this data showed that Eskom implemented stage 6 load-shedding while people were under the impression that stage 4 load-shedding was in progress.

Blom accused Eskom of deliberately under-reporting the load-shedding stages for the past month.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with the new leadership – whether they want to deceive the public or whether it is a board policy that they have changed their categories,” he said.

He explained this lack of transparency from Eskom is causing confusion among South Africans who may be experiencing load-shedding when they do not expect it.

The table below shows the load-shedding information shared by Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha which Blom is referring to.

Eskom Load-Shedding Stages
Stage What it means
Stage 1 Up to 1,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 2 Up to 2,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 3 Up to 3,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 4 Up to 4,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 5 Up to 5,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 6 Up to 6,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 7 Up to 7,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Stage 8 Up to 8,000 MW of the national load to be shed
Eskom Load-Shedding Statistics
Date Load-Shedding
Wednesday 5,359MW
Thursday 5,642MW

Eskom explains

Mantshantsha confirmed he publishes regular statistics about Eskom’s performance during times of load-shedding.

“Those statistics show the amount of power produced and the amount of load-shedding,” Mantshantsha said.

He denied that the figures show that Eskom is deliberately deceiving the public on which load-shedding stages it is implementing.

“Ted Blom knows, or ought to know, that in terms of Nersa’s rule NRS 048-9 once Eskom declares Stage 4 load-shedding, it can request any major industrial customer to curtail up to 20% of load,” Mantshantsha said.

“This amounts to 1,200MW of demand that must be curtailed by industrial customers as part of the licenced load curtailment in terms.”

Load-shedding is what Eskom sheds from the public, and that is what Eskom announced at Stage 4 on Thursday.


Ted Blom interview


Sikonathi Mantshantsha interview


Sikonathi Mantshantsha load-shedding data


Now read: Broken promises fuel anger over Eskom load-shedding

Source: MyBroadband

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