Eskom warns of possible outages

Electricity reserves are so tight that Eskom is monitoring the situation hourly and cannot guarantee that there will be no load-shedding for the rest of this week.

Eskom spokesman Andrew Etzinger said: “We have a low reserve margin but at this stage we are not planning to implement any load-shedding. This may change if there are technical problems. As we get closer to Friday, we will see an increased risk of load-shedding but we will assess the situation as we move closer to the day .”

Etzinger said it was difficult for Eskom to predict the availability of electricity in the short term. (Load shedding advice)

“So many things can change overnight. I can’t speculate what is going to happen tomorrow. On Friday morning the grid was stable but by 11am we were load-shedding. That is how quickly things can change.”

Etzinger denied that Eskom was in financial dire straits but he conceded that the company’s expenditure on diesel, which is between R1-billion and R2-billion a month, was not sustainable.

“If we continue using that amount of diesel, we will need external funding. We are in discussion with the government on this one, including Treasury.”

via Timeslive