Good news for Sona as Eskom suspends load shedding

Eskom has announced it will not implement load shedding on Thursday as generation capacity has sufficiently recovered, just in time for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) tonight.

Eskom had said on Wednesday that the outlook for the power system was unpredictable and there was a high probability of load shedding continuing today.

“Over the past 24 hours Eskom teams successfully returned four generation units to service, helping ease the capacity constraints sufficiently to enable us to not require load shedding.

“Another five units are expected to return to service during the next two days. The load shedding of the past two days has also enabled Eskom to adequately replenish the emergency generation reserves,” said the power utility on Thursday.

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Eskom said it implemented load shedding as a last resort to protect the integrity of the system.

“As previously communicated, Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance during this period, and as such the system will continue to be constrained, with the risk of load shedding remaining elevated.

“We currently have 4,928MW of capacity on planned maintenance, while another 13,217MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.”

It has requested the public to continue using electricity sparingly as the system remains vulnerable and unpredictable.

Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde

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