Eskom Suspends Load Shedding from 5am Thursday

Eskom has suspended load shedding from 5am Thursday morning.

The power utility says the power cuts over the six days was necessary to conduct repairs to generating units and to continue with the maintenance programme. 

Eskom’s Sikonathi Mantshantsha says even though the power utility was able to replenish emergency generation reserves, it had to continue relying on the support power system over the load shedding period.

“While Eskom is currently able to suspend loadshedding, there are still significant risks to some generating units, which would force Eskom to implement loadshedding at short notice should we lose any further generation capacity. The teams are doing everything possible to manage the risks.”

Mantshantsha says while Eskom teams have returned some generation units to service since Friday to reduce the pressure on the system, there have been further breakdowns 

“In addition to the Eskom planned maintenance programme, Hydro Cahora Bassa also started its planned annual maintenance outage on 09 October 2021, which resulted in a 650MW reduction in available capacity. Hydro Cahora Bassa is expected to be at full capacity by Friday morning.”

Eskom has apologised to South Africans for the load shedding, but at the same time urging people to use electricity sparingly to mimimise further load shedding.