The power utility has announced that load shedding will be suspended from midnight on Friday.
The ailing parastatal said the the deliberate power cuts were halted due to a lower weekend demand.
ALSO READ: Another 18 months of load shedding on the cards
Update
The power utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said Eskom will publish a further update on Sunday afternoon, or as soon as any significant changes occur.
“Since Wednesday evening, a generation unit each at Arnot and Majuba power stations were returned to service while a generating unit each at Duvha, Hendrina, Lethabo and Tutuka power stations were taken offline for repairs.”
Available capacity
“We currently have 5 254MW on planned maintenance, while another 15 190MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns. Load shedding is implemented only as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns,” Mantshatsha said.
Another 18 months of load shedding
Meawhile, this is not the end of load shedding.
South Africans will suffer from load shedding for at least another 12 to 18 months.
This was the dark and grim picture Eskom Chief Operating Officer Jan Oberholzer painted at Thursday’s annual Agri-SA congress in Pretoria.
Oberholzer said South Africa would not be able to end the deliberate power cuts until sufficient generating capacity was added to the electricity grid to meet demand.
“In terms of load shedding, I believe it’s here to stay for a period. Up until we have the additional capacity that we can fulfil the demand of the country, while at the same time we can give that respect to the plant and maintain it properly, we are going to sit with challenging situations.”
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