WHILE South Africans brave the cold front engulfing the country this weekend, they will have to put up with more load shedding after Eskom said it will most likely persist with power cuts through the coming week.
The power utility said in a short statement on Saturday that while its teams are working round the clock to return generation units to service, the severely constrained generation system will most likely persist through the coming week.
Eskom has requested the public to help reduce electricity usage in order to lessen the impact of load shedding.
The power utility said: “Eskom will continue implementing Stage 2 load shedding until 10pm tonight (Saturday). Load shedding will then be suspended during the night, will resume at 8am tomorrow (Sunday) at Stage 2 and continue until 10pm on Sunday night. Implementing load shedding on Sunday is necessary in order to replenish the emergency generation reserves to better prepare for the coming week. Due to the much colder weather, demand for electricity has also risen significantly.”
Eskom said that on Saturday its teams successfully returned to service three generation units at the Arnot, Duvha and Kendal power stations. These have added a combined 1 565MW capacity to the generation system, adding to Friday’s return to service of generation units at the Tutuka, Matimba and Arnot power stations.
The return of a generation unit each at Tutuka, Kriel and Hendrina power stations has been delayed, contributing to the supply constraint.
“Eskom urges the people of South Africa to continue reducing electricity usage to help us limit the impact of load shedding. With your help Eskom can recover from this much quicker.”
Eskom said it will communicate should there be any significant changes to the supply situation.
