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Eskom said the primary objective of load shedding was to build reserves after six units broke down.
Eskom on Friday announced that it will be implementing stage 3 load shedding. Photo: iStock
Eskom has suspended load shedding after implmenting stage 3 power cuts on Friday.
The paratatal’s spoksperson Daphne Mokwena said they will provide further updates if there are any changes to the situation.
“Due to the sufficient replenishment of emergency reserves, load shedding was suspended today at 6am in the [Sunday] morning. Eskom will provide updates if any significant changes occur.”
This comes after Eskom assured South Africans on Saturday that there would be no rolling blackouts from Monday onwards.
The country experienced load shedding for the first time in more than 10 months.
No load shedding
Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati said the load shedding was necessary to build reserves that the parastatal has relied on heavily since the start of the week following breakdowns at six power units.
Nyati assured South Africans that the situation is improving and that there won’t be any load shedding from Monday.
“We started to see in early January, that things were sleeping, things which were supposed to come back to service were not coming back to service and that escalated. So, the good thing is now things are back to normal. There is the right oversight, proper leadership is in place once again and things are being managed in the right way,” he told eNCA.
“This weekend, we are focusing on replenishing our reserves and I’ve just had an update from our CEO [Dan Marokane] that already we are where we thought we would be right now on a Saturday. When we look at it on Sunday, we think we are going to be exactly where we wanted to be.
“So, my sense is that there is not going to be any load shedding going forward, starting from Monday, as it has been promised by both the CEO and the minister [Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa],” Nyati said.
ALSO READ: Load shedding is back as Eskom imposes stage 3 power cuts from 5pm on Friday until Sunday [VIDEO]
Load shedding
Eskom on Friday announced that it will be implementing stage 3 load shedding from 5pm on Friday until Sunday night midnight to replenish the power reserves.
Ramokgopa said the country was hit by a “perfect storm”.
The minister provided an update on the country’s electricity generation performance on Friday following an announcement by the parastatal of a high risk of load shedding at short notice.
Ramokgopa said Eskom’s leadership was exceptionally disappointed that it had to take the step after 10 months without load shedding.
‘Perfect storm’
He explained that a “perfect storm” of multiple unplanned breakdowns and continued planned maintenance had resulted in the power utility depleting its emergency generation reserves in the past week.
“We got hit by a perfect storm. So, what is that perfect storm? We’ve had units out for planned maintenance. But we had the situation where two of our best-performing power stations, Matimba and Lethabo, had a number of units failing at the beginning of the week. Other units were also delayed in coming back online.
“So as a result, for most of the week, we had to rely on our open cycle gas turbines (OCGT), essentially we were burning diesel,” Ramokgopa said.
Marokane said the return of load shedding is a “potentially temporary setback”.
ALSO READ: City Power warns residents to brace for load shedding from 5pm
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