Temperatures across the country have dropped putting pressure on the electricity grid.
As the cold front sweeps across the country, Eskom has increased generation capacity to ensure that the lights stay on and halt load shedding during the freezing weather conditions.
Temperatures across the country, including in Gauteng, have dropped below the freezing mark as the cold weather forces people to use heating appliances to stay warm.
Freezing weather
Interior winds, disruptive rain, and light snow forecast for parts of the Free State, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Transport disruptions are expected.
Gauteng Weather has forecast the mercury for Johannesburg on Friday to drop to -2°C, reaching a high of 11°C.
ALSO READ: Get your blankets out: Cold front to hit Gauteng this week
Pretoria is forecast to have a temperature of 0°C, with a high of 13°C.
Load shedding?
With the cold weather already affecting many parts of the country, residents are hoping that Eskom will be able to mitigate the pressure on the electricity grid.
Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena told The Citizen, the power system remains stable and continues to demonstrate resilience in meeting increased electricity demand.
Although system constraints do occur from time to time, they are effectively managed through available emergency reserves, which are strategically deployed during morning and evening periods.
“To further enhance grid stability, Eskom plans to return 2 100 megawatts of generation capacity to service and address the anticipated cold weather.”
Winter outlook
In May, Eskom said it would have more than 2.5GW of power this winter and could avoid load shedding altogether if unplanned breakdowns remained below 13GW.
This bodes well for South Africans who were worried about rolling blackouts during winter.
In late January and February, South Africa experienced power cuts at various stages, ranging from stage 3 to stage 6, following nearly ten months of uninterrupted electricity supply.
Stage 2
Eskom CEO Dan Marokane said significant improvements have been made since the Summer 2024/25 outlook.
Marokane said Eskom does not expect load shedding this winter if unplanned outages remain below 13GW.
“If outages increase to 15GW, load shedding would be limited to a maximum of 21 days out of 153 days at Stage 2 – an improvement over the prior winter’s worst-case prediction of Stage 5 load shedding.”
Marokane said that load shedding was the lowest in Eskom’s last Financial Year (FY) 2025 than in the previous two years.
ALSO READ: Eskom winter outlook: Here’s how many days of load shedding to expect in SA
