On the company website they said, “Eskom urges consumers to continue using electricity sparingly to help reduce demand.” Meanwhile the public entity’s, Eskom Hld SOC Ltd @Eskom_, Tweet stated that the load shedding prognosis was medium to high this morning, with a higher probability of load shedding this evening due to a shortage of capacity.
Yesterday, Eskom applied Stage 1 load shedding from 4pm to 10pm due to a shortage of capacity. Earlier, the company had announced that the system was extremely constrained and that the risk of load shedding was high. “We urge all electricity customers to reduce their consumption, Eskom will provide regular updates on the status of the power system throughout the day.”
The entity urged electricity consumers to reduce their energy usage and reduce the load on the electricity grid by urgently switching off geysers, air conditioners, pool pumps and non-essential appliances.
Last week, Eskom said that the power system remained vulnerable as Unit 1 of Koeberg Power Station was out of service due to a technical fault on the main generator transformer there. It was said this resulted in the unit being isolated from the national grid. “Our engineers are currently onsite to determine the root cause of the fault. The nuclear reactor is not affected by the fault,” the statement read.
Unit 1 is undergoing a planned refuelling, inspection and maintenance outage yesterday (9 February) to determine if the unit could be brought back in the next few days or if it had to be taken out for its planned maintenance earlier than scheduled.
Eskom customers are advised to check the load-shedding schedules which are available on the Eskom website https://loadshedding.eskom.co.za . Municipal customers were urged to contact their local authorities.
Details: 0860 037 566.
