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As ailing parastatal Eskom burns millions of litres diesel as it battles to keep the lights on, chief executive officer André de Ruyter said the utility is struggling to buy more diesel.

The dark lords at Megawatt Park gave an update on the current system challenges on Sunday as the country currently battles exacerbated bouts of load shedding.

While Eskom was hoping to have the dam levels of its emergency pump storage units replenished by Monday morning, the diesel level at its Ankerlig open-cycle gas turbines (OCGT) was at a mere 32%, while the diesel level at the other OCGT plant Gouerikwa was at 85%.

ALSO READ: Eskom: ‘We are trying to avoid a total system collapse’

De Ruyter said the buying of diesel to run the OCGTs to keep the lights on has become an issue.

“It is a fact that liquidity to buy further diesel is an issue. Five months of this financial year, we’ve already burnt our way through about R7.7 billion worth of diesel which is just about the budget for the whole year.”

“Our Chief Financial Officer Calib Cassim has made available an additional R500 million to purchase more diesel. Of course, the diesel is made much more expensive due to political events and the higher oil price that currently prevails at the moment,” De Ruyter said.

Meanwhile, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer said stage 6 load shedding is planned for Monday, with heavy rolling blackouts expected for the week.

He said stage 6 load shedding will remain implemented until sufficient generating units are returned to service.

“We can’t make firm commitment as to when we can ease current stage of load shedding. We may be able to go to Stage 5 at 17:00 on Sunday depending on units returning to service.”

“We may still require stage 6 load shedding on Monday to protect emergency reserves. We will definitely have a high stage of load shedding this week.”

Earlier, De Ruyter said Eskom was doing its best to avoid a total system collapse by implementing stage 6 load shedding.

ALSO READ: Eskom implements stage 6 load shedding

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