Eskom vows to keeps lights on at SONA on Thursday
Eskom says residents and businesses can breathe a sigh of relief - for now.
The power utility announced at media briefing on Tuesday afternoon that it doesn’t plan to implement load shedding in the evening, as earlier announced.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter told journalists that the system has recovered sufficiently.
“Unless there is unforeseen trip of a plant or nay other system upset that we don’t anticipate, but of course given the lack of reliability and predictability of this system that there is always a risk, but barring any unforeseen uneven we will not implement load shedding tonight from 9pm to 5am.
“It’s really pleasing to see that when the focus is there and we put shoulder to the wheel, that our colleagues at generation can really get together and deliver this type of improvement.”
But he warned the situation could change again at short notice.
“We will continue to keep you updated as things develop. This is a dynamic environment in which we operate, things do happen.”
The country has been faced with rolling blackouts since the weekend following the loss of generating units at several power stations.
While the risk of power cuts remains, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer vowed there would be no disruptions to the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town on Thursday.
This year’s SONA will be held at the City Hall after a fire gutted the National Assembly last month.
“We will do what is in our power to ensure that we do not have load shedding and the load shedding is not limited to Thursday, which is an important event where the President [Cyril Ramaphosa] will address the nation,” said Oberholzer.
“We are aiming to reduce the risk of load shedding in general so that is what the focus is - to ensure the maintaining of plants, that we ensure that have skilled human capital to run these plants, to operate and to maintain it and to deal decisively with the unpredictability and the unreliability of the system.”
Eskom also vowed to take action against general managers at some power plants for the recurring power cuts that have strained the economy.
ALSO READ:
