Eskom to implement Stage 1 load shedding from Monday

South Africa will return to Stage 1 load shedding from Monday morning, Eskom has announced.

This follows the suspension of load shedding on Christmas day due to the lower demand for electricity.

While Stage 2 and 3 load shedding was on the cards from 27 December, Eskom confirmed on Sunday that Stage 1 would remain in place until further notice.

ALSO READ: ‘Eskom requires a fixer’: Mantashe denies accusing De Ruyter of trying to overthrow government

“Stage 1 load shedding will be implemented from 05:00 on Monday morning until further notice. This is possible due to the lower demand for electricity during the day, reducing the reliance on emergency generation reserves.

“We appeal to the electricity consumers to continue to using electricity sparingly,” the power utility said in a brief statement.

The brief suspension of load-shedding comes after Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said the power utility planned not to implement the power cuts on Christmas Day.

Speaking during Eskom’s 2021/2022 financial results presentation on Friday, Oberholzer said the utility would have to use a lot of its emergency resources to suspend the outages.

These include depleting water levels at its pumped storage dams and burning diesel to run its open-cycle gas turbines.

Net loss

Eskom also announced on Friday that it has incurred a net loss of R12.3 billion after tax despite the power utility’s operating profit improving by 238% to R20.4 billion.

The power utility’s CEO André de Ruyter said that despite this year’s loss, it has been reduced by 51% from the previous financial year, in which the power utility recorded a net loss of R25 billion after tax.

The reduction in the loss was due to higher sales revenue driven by a 15% tariff increase and as a result, Eskom’s revenue has gone up to R246.5 billion.

WATCH: Deployment of troops to Eskom plants raises questions about sabotage

“At the operating level, Eskom increased profit more than three times to R20.4 billion, from R6 billion in March 2021,” the Eskom boss, who has since resigned, said.

De Ruyter, however, pointed out that Eskom’s debt continues to plague the SOE, saying this hinders the power utility’s profitability.

Eskom’s debt currently stands at R396.3 billion, of which municipal debt made up R45 billion at the end of the financial year.