Power remains constrained today

Thursday, August 2, 2018

The power system is expected to remain constrained for most of today as wage talks between Eskom and the unions resume this morning under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

“Wage talks between Eskom and the unions will resume this morning under the auspices of the CCMA in an effort to resolve the current impasse,” said Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe in a tweet on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the power utility announced that it had sought the services of the CCMA to facilitate the engagement between the organisation and union leaders to resolve the impasse.

Eskom and the three unions - namely Solidarity, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) - will head back to the negotiation table for a second day running.

The second day of negotiations follows yesterday’s petrol bombing of a coal truck at the Hendrina power station in Mpumalanga.

Meanwhile, in a statement last night Eskom said it did not implement rotational load shedding. The power utility earlier on Wednesday issued a notice of the probability of instituting Stage 2 load shedding.

“Our staff have worked tirelessly to enable us to pull through the evening peak and to avert load shedding,” it said.

However the risk of load shedding remains high for today.

“It will only be implemented if absolutely necessary. This as a result of the industrial action and the impact on Eskom’s operations.”

The utility advised customers to keep checking their load shedding schedules on the Eskom and their municipal website, and plan on the assumption that load shedding will take place. 

For Eskom customers, these schedules are available on the Eskom website (http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za). Eskom customers can also contact our customer contact centre at 0860 037 566. - SAnews.gov.za