Image via Adobe Stock
Image via Adobe Stock
Some good news to bring you on Friday morning – Eskom has announced that load shedding will be suspended going into the weekend as they report some success in returning generation units to power, bringing to an end the latest miserable round of blackouts in South Africa.
Load shedding will be suspended from 12:00 on Friday. the rolling blackouts were set to continue until Saturday 20 March.
Eskom suspend load shedding
In a statement released on Friday 19 March, Eskom said that some generation units have returned to service, helping to restore generating capacity to meet the customer demand.
“Since yesterday morning, Eskom teams have successfully returned a generation unit each at the Duvha, Medupi, Kendal, Kriel and Kusile Power Stations,” they said, adding that 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. Eskom will also be taking the opportunity over the long weekend, due to the lower demand, to conduct short-term maintenance and to further replenish the emergency reserves in preparation for the week ahead.”
‘We apologise to the people of South Africa’
Eskom said that there are currently 7 183MW of energy out 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,” they said.
Eskom took the opportunity to apologise to the people of South Africa “for the inconvenience suffered during the load shedding”.
“As previously communicated, Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance during this period, and as such the system will continue to be constrained, with the possibility of load shedding remaining elevated,” they said, but urged customers to continue using electricity sparingly.
“Eskom requests the public to continue using electricity sparingly as the system remains vulnerable and unpredictable, and we will communicate timeously should there be any significant changes to the power system.”
