UPDATE: Load-shedding stage 1 currently in effect
JOBURG – Eskom said their emergency reserves are also insufficient to meet the demand for electricity during the day, resulting in load-shedding throughout Thursday until Friday morning.
Eskom stopped stage 2 load-shedding at am this morning (10 January), at which point stage 1 will be implemented until 11 pm. This is as a result of an improved prognosis for the day as some generating units return to service, Eskom said in a released statement.
“Our pumped storage schemes have been sufficiently replenished, and we continue to work to improve on the levels of diesel at our open cycle gas turbine generators. These emergency reserves will be used to supplement generation capacity today. Our intention is, however, to use as little diesel as possible in order to manage our costs. Our diesel generators will therefore only be used in the event of emergencies to back up our other units,” explained the power utility.
#POWERALERT1
Date:10 January 2020Stage 1 loadshedding will be implemented from 06h00 until 23:00 today @SABCNewsOnline @IOL @eNCA @ewnupdates @News24 @Fin24 @TimesLIVE @CityPowerJhb @CityofJoburgZA @CityTshwane @City_Ekurhuleni @eThekwiniM https://t.co/tTBzQezwXa pic.twitter.com/qhpTv7nEfh
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) January 10, 2020
Eskom explained that their team continues to work tirelessly to return units from planned and unplanned outages. “Owing to inadequate maintenance over a number of years, the system remains vulnerable to unplanned outages or breakdowns which are at 12 098 MW as at 4 am on Friday morning. We remind customers that load shedding is an essential and controlled measure to ensure that the integrity of the grid is not compromised.”
Eskom also advised customers who want to plan activities to check their load-shedding schedules on the Eskom website or through the customer contact centre on 08600 37566. “We will give South Africans regular updates about our prognosis for the weekend and the coming working week. We continue to ask customers to reduce demand as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or reduce the level of load-shedding..”
Eskom concluded, “We continue to ask customers to reduce demand as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or reduce the level of load-shedding.”
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