South Africans urged to use power sparingly amid constrained grid
Eskom has appealed to South Africans to use electricity sparingly due to a severely constrained system.
Two of the power utility's generation units tripped and went offline at the Medupi and Thuthuka power stations on Tuesday night.
“The system remained tight and constrained last night. We lost two units which caused us to burn quite a lot of diesel, but we managed to pull through without any load shedding,” Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter told Jacaranda FM’s Breakfast with Martin Bester on Wednesday.
ALSO READ: More SAA unions accept severance packages
While the power utility has not had to implement any load shedding for months, the country’s power grid is not out of the woods just yet as a cold front is expected to make landfall in the Western Cape on Thursday.
De Ruyter said Eskom will do its best to keep the lights on.
“We made a call for three days of load shedding in July and we are on the 8th of July. We are trying to keep the lights on this winter.”