Bad news as Eskom reverses its suspension of load shedding

Despite earlier announcing that load shedding would be suspended until 4pm on Monday, Eskom has squashed the good news by saying that stage 4 power cuts will now be implemented from 1pm.

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said load shedding was ramped up due to high demand and a slight reduction in generation capacity.

“Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented at 1pm today until 5am on Tuesday. Eskom will publish an update shortly. We plead with the public to switch off non essential appliances to reduce the demand.”

Earlier, the parastatal had suspended load shedding funtil 4pm on Monday.

The news came as a relief for South Africans as freezing temperatures sweep across the country.

Snow

However, the snowfall and adverse weather conditions around the country has likely put additional pressure on the electricity grid as temperatures plummet to extremely low levels.

Forecaster Lehlohonolo Thobela told The Citizen that snowfall has been reported in various parts of Gauteng.

“It is snowing in Johannesburg, especially in the southern parts spreading over to the eastern parts. The snow was observed in Soweto, some areas of Roodepoort, Heidelberg, Alberton as well as some areas in the east of Johannesburg.

Energy Action Plan

Meanwhile, with just a year since the introduction of the Energy Action Plan, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said it was bearing fruit, resulting in lower stages of load shedding.

READ MORE: Load shedding takes backseat: ‘We are winning’, says Mr Electric

Ramokgopa said Eskom has introduced open-cycle gas turbines to meet the country’s demand.

He said Eskom had been able to reduce capacity loss caused by plant failures to about 15 000 megawatts, which was the best-case scenario forecast in its planning for winter “and we even recorded just below 14 000MW recently as well”.

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