Load shedding stage 1 set for these times on Wednesday

Eskom has announced that the power generation system has improved and as a result, load shedding will be reduced from stage 2 to stage 1 on Wednesday.

Load shedding will be implemented between 9am and 10pm, the power utility said in a statement on Twitter.

The move to a lower load shedding stage comes in the midst of a severe cold front sweeping across much of the country with several generation units being taken offline in recent days.

Eskom said that generation units at Medupi and Majuba power stations have been returned to service and that Koeberg’s unit 2 has been “synchronised into the grid”.

However, a unit each at Kendal and Tutuka power stations respectively, have not been brought back online yet.

Energy expert Chris Yelland told The Citizen data he had received from Eskom indicated lower than projected power usage this winter due to the lockdown. Despite this, Eskom was not able to conduct the necessary deep maintenance its infrastructure was long overdue for. This was because the parts and expertise needed to do this was overseas and could not be imported any time soon.

Read more: Covid-19 poses serious threat to Eskom

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