As a result of the ruling, RFS has to throttle its electricity generation. It also halted a 480kW solar project in Frankfort that was nearly finished.RFS and its parent company Rural Maintenanceafter the state-owned power utility wanted to block the private power producer from implementing its own load-shedding system.
“We generate about 3.7kVA every day. The town needs about 10kVA daily to run without Eskom. Our installed capacity is 10kVA, but we are using about 7kVA daily,” RFS general manager Gugu Mokoena reportedly told the Sunday Times.“These zones have different times during the day when they are off. During that time, Eskom will declare a stage. If we are generating way more than Eskom requires for that zone, we don’t load-shed that zone.
“The impact of load-shedding on Frankfort can be reduced by Rural Free State using the power from the plant, but load-shedding as a whole cannot be eliminated as their generating capacity is not enough to cover the full demand for electricity,” Eskom said.Eskom said the independent power producer is welcome to reduce load-shedding in the town.
“To illustrate the point, if the demand at Frankfort at any given time is 5MW and the PV plant is generating 3MW, the balance of load under consideration will be required to be reduced to comply with the Code.”