Eskom says a man died after he was electrocuted in Tshwane. Photo: Unsplash
Eskom says a man died after he was electrocuted in Tshwane. Photo: Unsplash
With the country having waited with bated breath for what felt like the inevitable announcement that Eskom would implement load shedding once again following their ominous announcement that the grid was under severe pressure on Tuesday, the embattled power supplier has merely provided an update that the situation remains the same on Wednesday.
Load shedding has not yet returned despite the concession by the majority of the South African public that the measure was certain to be implement. This despite Eskom saying in a fresh statement on Wednesday that the public urgently needs to curb its electricity usage to avoid yet another round of the dreaded blackout schedules.
Load shedding avoided on Tuesday 25 May
Eskom said in the statement that the grid remains under “severe pressure” with load shedding remaining a “high probability” on Wednesday 26 May.
The company thanked the South African public for their efforts on Tuesday to curb their use of electricity after the state-owned enterprise announced that the likelihood of load shedding returning was extremely high due to maintenance concerns at several major power plants.
“With the assistance of the people of South Africa, Eskom was able to avoid load shedding last night. Eskom would again like to appeal to the public to help the country get through these constraints by reducing the usage of electricity,” they said.
“As the shortage of generation capacity still persists, caused by breakdowns in generation units and delays in others returning to service, Eskom continues to experience supply constraints.”
Threat of blackouts lingers on Wednesday
Eskom said that while “no load shedding is anticipated at this point”, the company could be forced to implement Stage 1 “or, if necessary, Stage 2” load shedding schedules at short notice should any further breakdowns occur.
They said that should this unfortunate eventuality come to pass, the blackouts would resume from around 17:00 until 22:00 in the evening on Wednesday.
“The current outlook for the remainder of the week is expected to improve as Eskom teams are working tirelessly to return more generators to service,” said Eskom.
Breakdowns at Eskom power stations are currently totalling the loss of 13 899MW of capacity, while another 2 220MW is unavailable due to planned maintenance.
Eskom said that they will communicate promptly should there be any significant changes to the system.
