Eskom preparing for up to stage 16 load-shedding

Eskom said the new national standards document would provide load-shedding schedules up to Stage 16.

The NRS Association of South Africa previously said it was developing new “NRS 048 part 9” standards to accommodate load-shedding beyond stage 8.

The NRS Project Management Agency produces NRS specifications for the electricity supply industry in South Africa on behalf of the NRS Association Management Committee.

The NRS specifications are intended to service the electricity supply industry covering a range of electro-technical topics and guidelines for sound business practices.

It is the third revision of the NRS 048 part 9 standards. Revision 1 described load-shedding stages up to stage 4, and the second revision catered for up to stage 8.

NRS Association chairman Vally Padayachee said it was likely that the country would experience higher stages of load-shedding in winter.

The new standards are, therefore, a proactive measure for Eskom and municipalities to be ready to respond with higher load-shedding stages should it be necessary.

The new document would avoid a situation where Eskom will need to “jump around” to reduce the load on the grid beyond stage 8.

Eskom told MyBroadband that the System Operator is responsible for ensuring the stability of South Africa’s power grid and sets the level of load-shedding needed to do so.

“Beyond Stage 8, the System Operator will instruct each province to reduce by a fixed megawatt amount,” it said.

This will be split between the Eskom Distribution network owner and the municipal network owners in each province.

“While this is effective in maintaining system stability, there are currently no predefined schedules of how this additional reduction should be rotated,” Eskom added.

“It is for this reason that NRS048-9 Revision 3 proposes load-shedding schedules up to Stage 16 to make load-shedding systematic and orderly,” Eskom said.

Eskom said the revised document also proposes more stages of load curtailment, although there are some practical limitations on industrial plants.