Increased risk of power cuts from Thursday afternoon: Eskom announces

POWER utility, Eskom has announced that there is an increased risk of load-shedding being implemented countrywide from Thursday afternoon at 2pm until 10pm.

According to a statement released by Eskom, the latest series of power rotations will probably continue throughout the first weekend of March.

This is said to be due to the need for power stations to replenish diesel and water reserves,
likely to last until the end of the weekend.  At the moment the least severe of the stages of load-shedding is being mooted with plans for Stage 1 to kick in with almost immediate effect.

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“Eskom regrets that there is an increased risk of Stage 1 rotational load-shedding from 2pm until 10pm today as a result of a shortage of generating capacity. The load-shedding risk remains high for today and tomorrow, and will continue over the weekend as there is a need to replenish emergency reserves (water and diesel) to limit the possibility and magnitude of load-shedding in the following week,” said the SOE in a statement released shortly after midday on Thursday.

“While the risk remains high, load-shedding will only be implemented if absolutely necessary. We remind customers that load-shedding is a controlled measure which protects the power system from a total collapse or blackout.”

Eskom said that it was encouraging its customers to use as little of the power it was producing as possible.  “Customers are encouraged to continue to use electricity sparingly. Please switch off geysers, pool pumps as well as all non-essential lighting and electric appliances to assist in reducing demand,” said the statement.

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This has caused people on social media to once again point out the irony of a supplier encouraging people to use less of their product while planning to charge more for it. Some tweets also expressed anger at how little their hard work at saving electricity was helping in the long run.

Why? What happened now? I have been saving power the whole week. What did you do now? @Eskom_SA … Are you going to be shocked again if this happen, Mr. President @CyrilRamaphosa ?

— Freddie de Lange (@FredZi_1) February 28, 2019

https://twitter.com/sauletp16/status/1101089057071923202

The statement continues with advice for customers about how to avoid being caught out when the power is cut. “Customers are advised to keep checking their load-shedding schedules on the Eskom and their municipal website, and plan on the assumption (sic) that load-shedding will take place.”

The power provider, or non-provider depending on where you are when the lights go out advised that it would “continue to provide regular updates about the state of the power system through various media platforms.”