{"id":221938,"date":"2022-04-12T14:04:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T12:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/eskom-working-to-restore-power-in-rain-affected-parts-of-kzn\/"},"modified":"2022-04-12T14:04:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T12:04:54","slug":"eskom-working-to-restore-power-in-rain-affected-parts-of-kzn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/eskom-working-to-restore-power-in-rain-affected-parts-of-kzn\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom working to restore power in rain-affected parts of KZN"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eskom crews have been dispatched to assess and deal with any interruptions to power supply as a result of the current flooding taking place in parts of KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n

Rain has lashed the coastal province \u2013 leading to flooding, the loss of lives and damage to infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The power utility said heavy rain has rendered some areas in KZN inaccessible and called for patience from communities.<\/p>\n

Eskom Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter said local crews are already assessing damages caused by the heavy rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere there are these events that disrupt the supply of electricity\u2026we dispatch our maintenance crews; we prioritise work to give the maximum relief to the maximum number of customers as quickly as possible. This is an emergency situation\u2026we are also looking at opportunities to alleviate some of the pressure on the system and hopefully, with our local management in place, can address the situation as it unfolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the process of doing damage assessments and understanding how we can restore power to areas as quickly as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

De Ruyter said, however, any repairs and power restoration will be done with the safety of crews and communities in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, it is very dynamic. The floods are still taking place and in a number of instances we\u2019ll have to wait for the flood water to subside before we can start the process of assessing damage first of all and then secondly, to start the repair work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have to bear in mind the safety of our crews as well as the general public when it comes to restoring the supply of electricity particularly in water logged areas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The chief executive said that Eskom itself is facing challenges as a result of the heavy rain and flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a significant ingress of debris into our Drakensburg pump storage facility. So while we have grids that stop debris from entering into the turbines, these clog up when there\u2019s an excess of debris and these have to be frequently cleared up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a challenge at Ingula [Pumped Storage Scheme] with the dams being excessively full. In order to run a pump storage facility, you need two dams and you want one dam full and one dam empty. This allows you to run water downhill through the turbine to generate electricity. When, owing to heavy rain, the bottom dam is full and the upper dam is full as well, then you have a constraint because you can\u2019t release water from the upper dam otherwise you\u2019ll cause flooding downstream with the lower dam,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

De Ruyter assured the public that the heavy rains are not expected to affect the power utility’s coal stockpiles. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom crews have been dispatched to assess and deal with any interruptions to power supply as a result of the current flooding taking place in parts of KwaZulu-Natal. Rain has lashed the coastal province \u2013 leading to flooding, the loss of lives and damage to infrastructure. The power utility said heavy rain has rendered some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-221938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/eskom-working-to-restore-power-in-rain-affected-parts-of-kzn.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}