By Kaya 959 Reporter
While load shedding was suspended at 5am on Thursday, Eskom warned that the system remains at risk. This means Eskom could implement further load shedding at a moment’s notice.
“We have used the past six days of load shedding to conduct some repairs to generating units and to continue with the maintenance programme.
“Even though we were able to replenish emergency generation reserves, we have had to continue relying on these to support power system over this period,” Eskom said.
Eskom apologised for the inconvenience that load shedding has caused. The power utility said while it is currently able to suspend load shedding, there are still significant risks to some generating units, which would force the implementation of further load shedding.
“The teams are doing everything possible to manage the risks,” it said.
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Use electricity sparingly
Eskom urged the public to continue using electricity sparingly in order to minimise the possibility of further load shedding.
Some generation units have returned to service since Friday, which helped reduce the pressure on the system. But Eskom said it has unfortunately suffered further breakdowns during the period.
“Although we have recovered some emergency generation reserve capacity to support the system, the recovery in generation capacity has not been sufficient to alleviate the system constraints,” it said.
Hydro Cahora Bassa also started its planned annual maintenance outage this week. This resulted in a 650MW reduction in available capacity.
Hydro Cahora Bassa is expected to be at full capacity by Friday morning.
Total breakdowns currently amount to 14 868MW while planned maintenance is 5 277MW of capacity.
“During the night and over the next few days, some generation units will be returning to service, which will further ease the pressure on the system. Returning units are expected at Kriel, Majuba, Hendrina, Lethabo and Tutuka power stations.”
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