Beware the blackouts

La Bella Figura patrons have their dinner by candlelight during a power outage in Illovo. Eskom says the only way for Joburg residents to avoid load shedding this winter is by being conservative with their electricity consumption, especially during peak evening periods. Picture: Antoine de Ras

Johannesburg - Switch off. This is the message Eskom is sending to South Africans, urging them to cut their electricity usage by 10 percent because demand is threatening to outstrip supply - and it’s not yet winter.

Over the past few weeks, the parastatal has been besieged by problems - including an unprotected strike at one of its major coal suppliers, Exxaro in Mpumalanga - that have put the national grid under pressure.

This, coupled with the amount of energy available to meet demand being low, could signal the possibility of winter load shedding.

In addition, Koeberg Unit 1 tripped two weeks ago and has had to undergo maintenance, and this has increased pressure on the grid.

Another contributing factor is damage caused by recent floods to a transmission line from Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique.

Eskom denied that load shedding was imminent despite its reserve margin sitting at 3.2 percent on Monday and 2.1 percent on Tuesday. Eskom’s reserve target was between 10 and 20 percent.

According to Business Day, half of this reserved capacity is being lost on unplanned outages and the rest to maintenance.

Eskom conducted a simulated load-shedding exercise this week.

But the parastatal said this was done as “part of its obligations in terms of the grid code, and as a prudent operator, Eskom conducts regular readiness exercises to ensure that its own national and regional control centres, and those of the municipalities, are prepared for emergencies should these arise”.

It added: “Eskom conducted its last national load-shedding readiness exercise in May 2012. It is conducting a more limited readiness exercise, with the control centres of participating metros and municipalities, to check the preparedness of the control centres.

But it warned: “We urge all South Africans to partner with us to keep the lights on and to use electricity sparingly, particularly during the evening peak period between 6pm and 9pm.”

The Star reported this month that Eskom’s power supply was being squeezed so tight and the utility’s options of getting more capacity was so limited that there were fears of a repeat of the mass load shedding of 2008.

Eskom spokeswoman Hilary Joffe would not say if load shedding was on the cards for this winter, saying Eskom was doing everything possible to keep energy flowing, including the buybacks from business and urging energy-saving measures in households, such as timer devices on geysers.

“It is our mandate to keep the lights on, and we are trying, but nobody said we can do this alone… we need help,” said Joffe.

The City of Joburg has made contingency plans for electricity and stated recently that its load-shedding days were over.

City Power has reinstated diesel and gas turbines, activated thousands of geyser ripple controls, obtained additional reserves from the Kelvin power station upgrade, issued thousands of fluorescent lights and started using solar power for traffic lights and public lighting.

Eskom is looking to Medupi to ease the pressure on the grid in the future. The parastatal says it is committed to ensuring that power flows from the first Medupi unit will start in December.

Replying to a question during the recent public hearings into Eskom’s third multi-year price determination application, Eskom said the commercial operation of Medupi Unit 6 - the first unit - might only start on February 28.

But it stressed that it was still targeting December for first power.

Eskom is also being plagued by high debt owed to it by municipalities.

About 40 percent of Eskom’s total sales are to municipalities.

Tips to save on your electricity bill:

* If you’re not using an appliance, switch it off and pull out the plug.

* A geyser uses 39 percent of all household electricity; switch it off to save electricity and money.

* Insulate geysers and water pipes as this will help the water to stay hot for longer. Reduce the temperature setting for your geyser’s thermostat to 60ºC, and shower instead of having a bath. Energy- and water-saving shower heads use less water and electricity.

* Use energy-saving globes instead of incandescent bulbs.

* Don’t leave televisions, DVD players and other electrical equipment in standby mode - rather switch them off completely.

* The same can be said for plug points and adaptors that hold cellphone chargers or bedside lights.

* To save money in your kitchen, close fridge doors as quickly as possible when taking items out - do not leave the fridge door open for longer than necessary.

* Keep room temperatures between 18ºC and 22ºC. Wear warm clothes and use hot-water bottles instead of using heaters to warmyour house.

* Reduce your pool pump’s operating time. Reset the pool pump timer to activate only for long enough to keep the pool clean.

Source: www.eskom.co.za


The Star/IOL

Eskom says power supply very tight

South African power utility Eskom said on Monday that available spare supply on its electricity network had fallen to just over 1 percent of total capacity due to a sharp increase in unplanned outages.

In a bi-weekly status update, Eskom said it had 31,708 MW of capacity for the Monday evening peak hours, when people return home and turn on stoves and air conditioners, against forecast demand of 31,228 MW, leaving a buffer of just under 500 MW.

The available capacity includes gas-fired emergency reserves.

The tiny difference between peak demand and available capacity brings Eskom close to the tight margins that led to rolling blackouts that hit Africa's largest economy in early 2008.

Eskom is walking a tightrope to keep power flowing to factories, mines and smelters that had to shut down for days four years ago, costing the economy billions of dollars in lost output and causing a spike in the price of metals such as gold and platinum, of which South Africa is a major producer.

Unplanned outages stood at 7,227 MW on Monday.

The power utility said last week that a transformer fire had cut electricity supplies to mines, hitting production.

While there are no rolling blackouts planned for now, Eskom has asked consumers to cut demand to ease strain on the system.

- Times Live

Sterk suidooster veroorsaak kragonderbrekings in die Kaapse Skiereiland

19h00 SAST - Die kragtoevoer na Athlone op die Kaapse Skiereiland is herstel nadat sterk winde oor die gebied kraglyne beskadig het. 'n Woordvoerder vir Kaapstad se Rampbestuur, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, sê 'n paar oorhoofse kabels is oornag afgewaai wat tot kragonderbrekings in dele van Athlone gelei het. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Weerkantoor het intussen gewaarsku dat stormsterk winde in die volgende paar dae van tot 40 kilometer per uur tussen Kaappunt en Kaap Agulhas sowel as oor die Skiereiland verwag kan word.

09H00 SAST - 'n Sterk suidooster in die Kaapse Skiereiland het tot talle kragonderbrekings gelei. Veral dele van Athlone op die Kaapse Vlakte word geraak waar kragpale omgewaai het. 'n Woordvoerder vir Kaapstad Rampbestuur, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, sê tegnici is besig om aan die probleem te werk. Die wind wat die naweek opgesteek het, het ook gelei tot die sluiting van die Tafelberg Kabelspoor. 'n Woordvoerder, Sabine Lehman, sê die kabelspoor sal vandag steeds gesluit wees weens onveilige weerstoestande. Die veerboot na Robbeneiland sal egter sy werksaamhede hervat nadat dit gistermiddag weens die sterk wind nie kon vertrek nie.

- RSG Nuus

Millions still without power in NY, NJ after Sandy

(Reuters) - More than 1.3 million homes and businesses in New York and 1.4 million in New Jersey were still without power on Friday, four days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast, the states' power companies said.

Most utility companies in the two states said it could take a week or longer to restore power to all customers in the wake of Sandy, the worst natural disaster to strike their customers.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo sent a letter Thursday to the CEOs of state power companies, saying he would "take appropriate action against those utilities and their management if they do not meet their obligations to New Yorkers in this time of crisis."

"I recognize there are men and women in the field now working hard to restore service ... but it is your job to provide them with adequate resources and support to get the job done in a timely and safe manner," Cuomo said.

New York's Consolidated Edison Inc, the biggest utility in the state, said Friday about 565,000 homes and businesses in New York City and Westchester County were without power, down from more than 900,000 affected by the storm.

Con Edison serves more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County.

In New Jersey, Public Service Enterprise Group Inc said more than 716,000 customers were still out, down from 1.7 million. PSEG serves about 2.2 million customers in the state.

FirstEnergy Corp's Jersey Central Power and Light utility reported more than 712,000 customers were still without power, down from more than 1 million affected by the storm. JCP&L serves about 1.2 million in New Jersey.

PRESSURE FROM CUOMO

Con Edison said it expects to make significant progress restoring electricity to all customers over the next seven days.

In lower and mid-Manhattan, Con Edison has said it expected to restore power by Saturday, November 3.

But the company warned that more than 100 buildings which have had their power restored were still without electricity due to flooding in basements or damage to local equipment.

"Utilities, like elected officials, are vested with the public's trust. In the case of utilities, in exchange for conducting business and generating profits for their shareholders, they are entrusted to provide safe and adequate utility service," Cuomo said in his letter.

"When they fail to keep the public's trust, they must answer," the governor said.

He warned: "If you failed to prepare ... I would direct the Public Service Commission to commence a proceeding to revoke your Certificates (of public convenience and necessity)."

To date, Con Edison said its crews have restored electricity to more than 320,000 customers affected by Sandy.

As of 5:00 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) Friday, Con Edison said about 226,000 customers lacked service in Manhattan, 84,000 in Queens, 35,000 in Brooklyn, 54,000 in Staten Island, 31,000 in the Bronx and 140,000 in Westchester.

Elsewhere in New York, the Long Island Power Co (LIPA) said it still had about 532,000 customers without power, down from more than 900,000. LIPA serves about 1.1 million customers on Long Island.

"With respect to the Long Island Power Authority, I will make every change necessary to ensure it lives up to its public responsibility," Cuomo said.

"It goes without saying that such failures would warrant the removal of the management responsible for such colossal misjudgments," Cuomo said about LIPA.

UK power company National Grid operates the power system on Long Island under a contract with LIPA. That contract will end in 2014, when a unit of New Jersey's PSEG will take over the operation of the system.

The utilities in New York and New Jersey with much fewer current outages include units of Con Edison, Iberdrola SA, National Grid, CH Energy Group Inc and Pepco Holdings Inc.

(Editing by Gerald McCormick and Bernadette Baum)

- Reuters

Blackout in New Jersey and New York

This pair of images shows New Jersey, New York, and eastern Pennsylvania as viewed at night by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite. The top image was taken at 2:52 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (06:52 Universal Time) on November 1, 2012. For comparison, the lower image was taken at 2:14 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (06:14 UTC) on August 31, 2012, when conditions in the area were normal.

Both images were captured by the VIIRS “day-night band,” which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as gas flares, city lights, and reflected moonlight. In the top image, lingering clouds from Hurricane Sandy are lit by moonlight and obscure much of New York’s Hudson Valley, northwestern New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania. (For a wider view, download the large image beneath each web image.)

Turn on the “view image comparison” button to see the difference in city lighting before and after the blackout. In Manhattan, the lower third of the island is dark on November 1, while Rockaway Beach, much of Long Island, and nearly all of central New Jersey are significantly dimmer. The barrier islands along the New Jersey coast, which are heavily developed with tourist businesses and year-round residents, are just barely visible in moonlight after the blackout.

Along with the scattered electric lights, there is a bright point along the shore south of Mantoloking, New Jersey, that could be fires fueled by severed natural gas lines. Note: It is not clear if the fires reported on October 31 were still burning on November 1.

For more views of the storm, visit our Hurricane Sandy event page.
 

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Rob Simmon, using VIIRS Day-Night Band data provided by Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) at the University of Wisconsin. VIIRS is an instrument on the Suomi NPP satellite, a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.

Instrument: 

Suomi NPP - VIIRS - NASA

Three days after Sandy, 659,000 ConEd customers in NY powerless

(Reuters) - New York power company Consolidated Edison Inc said Thursday it still had about 659,400 homes and businesses without power three days after monster storm Sandy slammed into the U.S. East Coast.

Sandy hit the East Coast late Monday leaving more than 8.48 million customers without power in 21 states from North Carolina to Maine and as far west as Illinois.

Con Edison said in a report it has restored power to more than 225,000 customers since Sandy's departure.

The company said the storm was the worst natural disaster to strike its service area.

Con Edison said it expects to make significant progress restoring electricity over the next two days with help from additional crews from around the country arriving daily from as far away as California.

That is consistent with the company's earlier expectations.

On Wednesday, the company said customers in Manhattan and Brooklyn served by underground equipment should have power back within three days and said it would take at least a week to restore all of those in areas served by overhead power lines.

As of 4:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, Con Edison said about 227,000 customers were still out in Manhattan, 103,000 in Queens, 59,000 in Brooklyn, 83,000 in Staten Island, 36,000 in the Bronx and 166,000 in Westchester County. (By 8.45 a.m., the total number of clients was down to 659,400.)

Late Wednesday, Con Edison said it restored power to customers served by two underground electrical networks in Manhattan and Brooklyn that were taken out Monday night as the floodwaters from the storm were surging.

The networks serve about 2,000 customers in lower Manhattan and 28,200 in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. Con Edison warned that some buildings in restored neighborhoods may still be without electricity due to basement flooding or damage to local equipment.

(Reporting By Scott DiSavino; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

- Reuters

Power Interuption: Heiderand, Mossel Bay - 21 October 2012

Please note that we experiencing a power failure today in this area. Power will be off for the day.The Blog will only be updated as soon as power is restored. We are using battery power as a result of the lack of a generator. We will be updating Twitter and our Facebook pages. Apologies for any inconvenience. - SAWDOS

Mossel Bay power outage

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Eskom plans to temporarily interrupt the electricity supply on Sunday, 21 October, between 06:00 and 18:00, to the following areas:

Point, Mossel Bay Central, Golf Estate, Heiderand, Pinnacle Point, Garden Route Casino, Santos, De Bakke, Da Nova, Tarka, D'Almeida, Extension 6, 7 ,8, 22, Joe Slovo, Boland Park, Dias Beach, Voorbaai, Vakansieplaas, Aalwyndal, Bayview, Island View, Seemeeupark, Hartenbos Heuwels, Sonskynvallei, Monte Christo, Hartenbos Estate, Klein-Brakriver, Riverside, Fraai Uitsig, Reebok, Rheebokhoogte and Tergniet.

- Mossel Bay Advertiser

12-hour power outage: Reminder

WILDERNESS NEWS - There will be a power outage in Wilderness and surrounding areas on Sunday, 21 October. The outage will take place from 06:00 till 18:00.

Areas that will be affected include Wilderness, Woodville, Hoekwil and surrounding areas.

Work will be done by Eskom on their overhead lines.

In the event of adverse weather conditions on Sunday, 21 October, the outage will be postponed to Sunday, 28 October.

- George Herald

Durbanites still in the dark after storm

Hundreds of residents in the south of Durban have been without electricity for nearly 48 hours following a heavy storm earlier this week.

EThekwini Municipality's Deena Govender says 17 pole transformers and spans of overhead cables were brought down during Wednesday evening's storm.

It's affected the power supply to parts of Sunnyside Park, Engonyameni and Elukhanyisweni.

He says however they've since managed to restore supply to Seadoone extension, Kingsburgh and Adams Mission.

Power to the KwaMakutha and Folweni areas is expected to start coming back online between now and 6pm this evening.

Govender says technicians have been deployed to all affected areas and should have supply restored by latest on Sunday.

Govender's re-iterated that affected residents should rather email complaints to custocare@elec.durban.gov.za instead of phoning them through.

- East Coast Radio News

Power cuts after substation explosion

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of a substation explosion that left hundreds of people in parts of Durban North, Effingham and Greenwood Park without electricity earlier today.

EThekwini Municipality's explained there was a blast at the Parkhill Major substation just before 7am this morning.

Power has now been restored by re-distributing the load to neighbouring circuits.

Residents in the same region were up in arms last week after their lights were cut twice for several hours in one day.

The municipality's Criselda Bisram has advised residents in the north Durban areas to use electricity sparingly.

"As in any emergency redistribution exercise, the circuits picking up the additional load are at risk of over loading [and] tripping, hence we urge all customers to assist us in reducing load on your circuits over the next two days - until the circuit breaker is repaired," she said.

- East Coast Radio

Storm warning for Johannesburg

Johannesburg - Storms predicted across Gauteng from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning could result in electricity outages, Johannesburg City Power said.

"City Power has, as is always the case, arranged special repair and re-connections teams to make sure that in the event of power interruption we can re-connect electricity as quick as possible," it said in a statement.

Customers could report outages to 0860 562 874 or at www.citypower.co.za.

City Power urged consumers to conserve electricity.

- SAPA/News24

Power restored to parts of West Rand

Power was restored to parts of Roodepoort on Monday afternoon after two acts of cable theft left a man dead, a sub-station aflame, and areas without power, Johannesburg City said.

City Power spokesman Sol Masolo said in a statement technicians had restored power to Kloofendal, Allensnek, Strubens Valley, Poortview, Honeydew, and Wilgeheuwel by 2pm.

The supply had also been reinstated in Little Falls, Constantia Kloof, and Weltenvredenpark.

Cable theft at a Roodetown substation left the surrounding area without power from 7am.

"Due to the fact that the protection cables at the Roodetown substation have been stolen, an attempted cable theft at Roodepoort caused fire which burned one of the transformers, causing the power interruption," Masolo said.

City Power officials found an electrocuted body at the Roodepoort station.

The fire at the sub-station also knocked out traffic lights, resulting in traffic jams, the Johannesburg metro police said.

Senior Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said power to the traffic lights was expected to be out for the rest of the day.

Minnaar said morning traffic was "very, very heavy" as a result of the power outage.

Metro police officials had been deployed to direct traffic at the main intersections in Roodepoort.

- Times Live

West Rand cable theft causes death and traffic chaos

Two acts of cable theft on Monday morning left a man dead, a sub-station aflame, and the Roodepoort area without power, Johannesburg City Power said.

Spokesman Sol Masolo said the first theft happened at a Roodetown substation and left the nearby area without power from 7am.

"Due to the fact that the protection cables at the Roodetown substation have been stolen, an attempted cable theft at Roodepoort caused fire which burned one of the transformers, causing the power interruption," Masolo said in a statement.

City power officials found an electrocuted body at the Roodepoort station. More details were not available.

Masolo said officials were working to restore power to the area following the cable theft.

The fire at the sub-station also knocked out traffic lights, resulting in traffic jams, the Johannesburg metro police said.

Senior Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said power to the traffic lights was expected to be out for the rest of the day.

Minnaar said morning traffic was "very, very heavy" as a result of the power outage.

Metro police officials had been deployed to direct traffic at the main intersections in Roodepoort.

- Times Live

Mossel Bay power cut this weekend

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - There will be a possible power cut in the Mossel Bay CBD, Da Nova, Extensions 6, 7, 8, 22, D'Almeida, Boland Park, Heiderand, Village on Sea and Mossel Bay Golf Estate on Sunday, 16 September.

Weather permitting, the electricity supply to consumers will be interrupted either partially or completely between 08:00 and 17:30.

If the weather is unfavourable, disruption will take place the following day.

- Mossel Bay Advertiser

'Bara power outages costing lives'

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Medical Association (Sama)’s Public Sector Committee on Tuesday said power outages at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital were costing lives.

Earlier on Tuesday, Health Department spokesperson Simon Zwane denied there was a problem at the Soweto hospital.

This despite photographs of doctors using headlamps and cellphone lights emerged during a C-section procedure on Friday.

Zwane said the photos were creating a false impression of the hospital's problems.

But Sama spokesperson Phopi Ramathuba said these incidents were happening and various hospitals.

“We have seen incidents were doctors have had to improvise to save lives.”
Friday’s incident was confirmed by two doctors at the hospital.

- EWN

Kragonderbrekings in Tshwane

Johannesburg – Gedeeltes in Tshwane se noordelike woonbuurte het Sondag kragonderbrekings ervaar, het die stad gesê.

'n 143 kV-kragmas wat vernietig is, het op die grond geval en kragonderbrekings veroorsaak, het Nomasonto Ndlovu, woordvoerder, gesê.

Omgewings wat deur die kragonderbrekings geraak word sluit in Wonderboom, Annlin, Sinoville, Bon Accord, Government Village line, Doornpoort, Pretoria-Noord, Wolmer, Tileba, Dorandia, Ninapark en Theresapark.

Nomasonto het gesê die elektrisiteit sal hopelik teen 14:00 weer aangaan.

- SAPA/Nuus24

Snow: thousands still without power

Three thousand residents in the Nottingham Road, Cedarville, Gowry and Rainbow Lakes areas have been without electricity for a week after heavy snowfall in the area.

Five transmission lines to KwaZulu-Natal were damaged by the bad weather last Tuesday.

Eskom says it's since managed to get three of the lines running and technicians are working on the remaining two.

The utility's Hillary Joffe says the repairs aren't causing interruptions to the power supply. She says smaller local distribution lines are to blame.

"That's because of faults on the local lines that serve those areas. Access has still been a problem, even though the weather has improved, and our technicians have been doing their best to get to the faults and repair them," she said.

Joffe says they're looking at ways of making the grid more resilient to bad weather.

"The situation could have been worse because the weather really was very severe. But we're certainly looking at our lines - and repairing them."

- East Coast Radio

Eskom faces new power crisis

Johannesburg – Eskom again faces power shortages. Within six years the utility will have a 40m tonne coal deficit to meet its annual requirements.

This shortfall is owing to Mpumalanga’s shrinking coal reserves, which need urgent supplementation with coal from the Waterberg area, which has 70bn tonnes of shallow coal reserves lying between Lephalale and the Botswana border.

Every year after 2018 the shortfall will assume greater proportions because of Mpumalanga’s shrinking reserves.

By 2040 only five of the 13 coal-fired power stations in Mpumalanga will still have coal.

Transport costs to Mpumalanga will be between R100 and R200/t, which means the coal will cost 50% to 100% more than the R209 that Eskom is currently paying for coal from those mines mostly close to the power stations. Electricity consumers will ultimately bear these costs.

Railway lines are now hurriedly being built to get the Waterberg coal in Mpumalanga, but the only long-term solution is to build more power stations at Medupi and Matimba in the Waterberg area, where half of the country’s remaining coal resources lie. Last month Eskom asked the 15 owners how much coal they can make available for the Mpumalanga power stations.

Exxaro, the only one of the 15 mineral-right owners producing coal, said it was prepared to provide 2m tonnes a year by 2014 and, by 2018, to increase this to 30m or even 40m tonnes, depending on Eskom’s specifications.

Transnet committed itself to improving the carrying capacity of the railway line to 23m tonnes/year by 2016 and eventually to push this up to 80m to accommodate, inter alia, for coal exports from Botswana.

Owners of the 70bn tonnes of coal in the Bushveld are however frustrated and disillusioned by the delay in providing a legal framework for erecting private, independent power stations while the country pays higher prices because of electricity shortages.

The electricity regulation bill and that on independent system operators, which will remove control of the country’s power grid from Eskom so that independent operators can also use it, has been dragging on for three years.

Construction of private coal-fired power stations cannot start before these matters are finalised. It has become increasingly obvious that independent power generators are the key to the country’s energy problems.

There is also enormous frustration in the mining industry because Eskom is buying electricity back from chrome smelters.

This winter this has brought half of the ferrochrome industry to a standstill and resulted in South Africa surrendering considerable market share to China.

“How can Eskom be proud of us getting through winter without power failures while effectively there has been commercialised load-shedding?” a player in the ferrochrome industry said to Sake24.

- Sake24

Update: Power Failure - Port Elizabeth

Press Release

August 11, 2012

PROGRESS MADE WITH RESTORATION OF ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality wishes to advise residents affected by the electricity failure earlier today that good progress is being made with undoing the damage caused by the explosion of the high-voltage transformer at the Mount Road substation.

Mr Carl Hempel, NMBM Director of Distribution, has confir
med that the full return of power to all residents will occur sometime after 7pm this evening, in the early to mid evening.

The NMBM regrets any inconvenience caused to residents by this unforeseen power failure.

Ends.

Issued on behalf of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality by the Acting Director of Communications, Ms Marthie Nel.