Pretoria - Following Wednesday’s electricity cuts, the power system is expected to remain tight on Thursday evening, says Eskom.
At around 5:30pm on Wednesday, two units at Duvha and Kendal power stations tripped and a portion of the capacity normally imported from Cahora Bassa became unavailable.
“As a result, a reduction in electricity demand was required between 6pm and 8pm in order to balance the electricity system, which was implemented according to Eskom’s load shedding schedule,” said the power parastatal.
The utility on Wednesday night apologised to its customers for the inconvenience caused, adding that it anticipates that the system will remain tight on Thursday between 5pm and 9pm.
“Once again we appeal to all energy users to use electricity sparingly during this period. In an effort to avoid load shedding, all electricity users are urged to switch off non-essential appliances, pool pumps and geysers between 5pm and 9pm.”
The utility said commercial customers, particularly shopping centres, and office blocks can make the biggest difference by switching off non-essential lights and not leaving office equipment like computers in standby mode after hours.
Speaking at an Eskom briefing last week, newly appointed Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said the load-shedding incident experienced in March this year had been a last resort for the entity.
“The decision to implement load shedding is not taken lightly,” she said at the time. - SAnews.gov.za
