Pretoria - Eskom says there will be no load shedding today as it has enough generating capacity to meet the demand.
Should there be a change in the power status, the power utility said it would communicate with the public.
As the evening temperatures begin to drop, Eskom has urged the electricity users to consider energy efficient ways of keeping warm.
Although there was no planned power cuts last night, the utility implemented stage one load shedding in the evening.
It attributed these to the technical faults on some of the power generation fleet, resulting in the shortage of about 1000MW.
“Some of the units, such as unit 1 of the Arnot power station, have been brought back on stream overnight,” Eskom said, assuring customers that load shedding is implemented as a necessary measure to protect the power system and to ensure that maintenance is carried out in order to guarantee that the supply of electricity can be maintained in the long term.
Eskom, meanwhile said that it continues to make progress with its maintenance programme.
About 64% of Eskom’s current installed base load power stations are past their midlife, meaning that they require more maintenance and extended restoration time than planned.
Midlife refurbishments or replacement being carried timeously reduce equipment failures from occurring, thus improving the ability to provide reliable supply to customers, it said.
Since December last year, the availability of Eskom’s plant performance has improved from 65% to 75%.
“We therefore urge all customers to partner with us to save at least 10% of their electricity usage throughout the day. This will help us manage the power system during this challenging time, while also enabling us to do adequate maintenance to ensure the reliability of our plants.” - SAnews.gov.za
