Good Friday as Eskom ‘cancels’ load shedding
Eskom will suspend load shedding from 12pm on Friday after more generation units returned to service.
This helped the power utility to restore available capacity and brings to stage 2 load shedding to a temporary end.
South Africans had to content with rolling blackouts for most of the past week.
“Since yesterday (Thursday) morning, Eskom teams have successfully returned a generation unit each at the Duvha, Medupi, Kendal, Kriel and Kusile power stations,” says the utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha.
“A further unit each is expected to return to service today at the Camden and Majuba power stations. Although we have also lost other units at Tutuka, Camden and Hendrina power stations, we have
managed to adequately replenish emergency generation reserves.
Mantshantsha says Eskom will use the long weekend, which will see lower demand, to conduct short-term maintenance and to further replenish the emergency reserves for the week ahead.
“We currently have 7 183MW on planned maintenance, while another 10 464MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns and delays. The improved generation availability, together with the lower long weekend demand, has enabled us to cancel load shedding at this point.”
It has, however, warned that the system remains vulnerable and unpredictable.
