Eskom Acting CEO Calib Cassim says he does not"lose sleep" over the possibility of a blackout.A blackout is generally caused by an unexpected event, like extreme weather, and not necessarily due to a loss of generation capacity.Eskom acting CEO Calib Cassim said that he does not"lose sleep" over the possibility of a blackout.
"One of the biggest questions asked by various stakeholders is, 'is the country going to experience a blackout?' I have all the confidence in the staff of the System Operator. We will never get there," he said. Moving from Stage 6 to Stage 8 load shedding is not a signal that there is an impending blackout, Scheppers stressed.
The black start is a test that involves shutting down a power station, restarting it, and then connecting it to the grid again. Essentially it is for Eskom to check if it can reboot the system after a blackout. "We had three units at the Kusile power station of 2 000MW, which are no longer available during this winter. We also have both units of Koeberg of 900MW that are not available. We are starting on the back foot of -3 000MW," Cassim said.Cassim said that the unavailability factor of electricity averages 16 000MW to 19 000MW. He said that reducing the unavailability factor is key to improving Eskom's winter outlook and load shedding plans.