After implementing Stage 2 load shedding on Thursday night, Eskom on Friday again warned South Africa it might again implement load shedding later in the day.
Eskom said that the system remains tight and vulnerable with a high risk of load shedding.
“Stage 2 load shedding was terminated at 05:00 on Friday morning. While the system remains extremely constrained and vulnerable, the overnight load shedding assisted with partial recovery of our emergency resources to enable us to get through the morning,” the power utility said.
“We will need to continue to replenish both our water levels at pumped storage schemes and diesel for our open cycle gas turbines over the weekend in order to place us in a better position to stabilise for the week ahead.
“Our objective remains not to implement load shedding during the day today, however given the unplanned breakdowns that are still above 10 500 MW and the need to continue to replenish emergency reserves, the probability of load shedding remains high for the latter part of the day but will only be implemented if absolutely necessary.”
Eskom load shedding on Friday
Eskom said that it will communicate an update later on Friday.
“Eskom’s technical teams are working tirelessly to return units from planned and unplanned maintenance and to replenish emergency reserves,” the utility said.
‘A concerted collective effort to reduce demand can further help to lessen the level of loadshedding. And as such, we strongly urge customers to assist by helping to reduce demand by using electricity sparingly.”
- Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23ºC
- Switch off your geysers over peak periods
- Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time
- Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time for optimal energy use.
- At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the switch. Avoid stand-by or sleep mode.
“Customers are advised to check their load shedding schedules on the Eskom or municipal websites,” Eskom said.
“We remind customers that load shedding is conducted rotationally as a measure of last resort to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout. “