Power restoration efforts still on track

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Pretoria - Power has been restored to almost all of Eskom's customers that had no electricity as a result of severe weather conditions, the utility said on Monday.

"In KwaZulu-Natal ... about 3 000 customers are still without power in areas which include Cedarville, Gowry, Rainbow Lakes and Nottingham Road, due to weather-related faults on local distribution networks," said Eskom.

Eskom apologised to customers that had been affected while it was working to restore supply.

The cold weather had resulted in increased electricity usage across the country. Eskom urged customers to use electricity sparingly and also to switch off all non-essential appliances, particularly during the evening peak hours between 5pm and 9pm.

Peak demand for the rest of this week is forecast at: 34 738 MW on Tuesday; 34 637 MW on Wednesday; 34 562 MW on Thursday; 33 104 MW on Friday; 31 849 MW on Saturday and 31 667 MW on Sunday.

"We urge all South Africans to partner with us to save 10% of their electricity usage. This will make it significantly easier to manage the power system during this challenging time, while also enabling us to do planned maintenance to ensure the reliability of our plant," said Eskom.