Pretoria - The electricity supply system will remain vulnerable for the rest of the week due to a shortage of generating capacity, says power utility Eskom.
“… Several units are currently out of service due to planned and unplanned outages. Due to the unavailability of a reserve margin (spare capacity), any extra load or faults in the system may necessitate the need to go into load shedding.
“This being Eskom’s maintenance season, we expect the power grid to remain constrained for the rest of this summer season,” said Eskom on Monday in its state of the power system report.
The system remains constrained but stable. Improved plant performance, boosted by the return to service of some of the generating units that were offline for maintenance, has helped to stabilise the power system during the day, Eskom said.
The utility called on all South Africans to pull together over the next few months and use electricity sparingly.
“Less is more this summer and homeowners and businesses can do so with just four steps: first, switch off geysers and pool pumps; second, switch off non-essential lights; third, use air-conditioners efficiently by keeping the room temperature at 23⁰C; and finally, respond to the alerts on TV each evening,” it said. - SAnews.gov.za
