Heavy rains have hampered the supply of coal to Eskom power stations and the utility has now put 500 of its largest customers on a mandatory energy conservation scheme in order to cut electricity consumption in the country.

Eskom chief executive, Brian Dames, says there is a risk that South Africa could be forced to implement load-shedding in the months ahead but says that the electricity conservation measures will help prevent mandatory power cuts over the next few months.

He says the combination of unexpectedly heavy rains – which have reduced the coal stocks – and the unplanned shutdown of two units at Koeberg nuclear power station contributed to the problems facing Eskom.

At the height of load-shedding in 2008, Eskom had coal reserves for just 12 days but its reserves have now risen to 42 days. Dames points out that the utility will not be able to avoid power outages unless consumers reduce electricity consumption. The demand for electricity is expected to rise by 2% this year.

Dames urged all property owners and electricity consumers in South Africa to play their role by reducing consumption.

Dames says that unless steps are taken to reduce consumption then there will be a shortfall of six terawatt hours in the coming financial year and nine terawatt hours for the 2012/13 financial year.

Eskom has a capacity of 43 000 MW, including its imports from Mozambique, but forced outages had reduced this by at least 3 500 MW. Planned maintenance would reduce this by a further 6 500 MW.

This means that the total generating capacity could drop to just 33 000 MW while the demand for electricity was expected to rise to about 30 000 MW by next week, prompting the need for Eskom to implement energy conservation measures among its 500 largest customers.

Dames says that Eskom currently has enough capacity to keep the lights on in South Africa but it does not have enough reserves to accommodate an unplanned shutdown of one of its plants.

He has called on all South Africans to continue to use electricity sparingly because reduced consumption provides the utility with greater reserve capacity.

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