No load shedding is expected today as Eskom has adequate generating capacity to meet the electricity demand.
In a statement on Wednesday, the power utility urged customers to continue using electricity sparingly at all times to enable technicians to carry out the requisite maintenance of generating units.
The utility said commercial customers, particularly shopping centres and office blocks, can make a big difference by switching off non-essential lights and not leaving office equipment such as photocopiers and computers in standby mode after hours.
“As the evening temperatures begin to drop, we urge electricity users to consider energy efficient ways of keeping warm. This is particularly important over the next few days as the weather is expected to be quite cold,” said Eskom.
Meanwhile, Unit 1 of the Koeberg power station was returned back to service on Tuesday after a statutory three-month refuelling and maintenance programme.
The Unit 1, which currently a total output of 900MW, will help to further stabilise the power system ahead of the start of the cold peak periods this winter.
“There has not been load shedding since Thursday last week, and Eskom’s plan is to continue reducing the maintenance backlog without having to implement load shedding. The focus of our maintenance drive is to ensure long-term reliability and sustainability of our power generating plants,” said Eskom’s Acting Chief Executive Brian Molefe.
Since December last year, the availability of Eskom’s plant performance has improved from 65% to 75%.
“Going forward, we plan to continue with our maintenance programme in an effort to reduce the backlog that has accumulated over the past few years. Most importantly, we plan to execute the maintenance drive without having to implement load shedding,” said Molefe.
Unit 1 has been on a planned maintenance and refuelling programme since February this year. This was a big outage for Koeberg, with probably the biggest maintenance scope of work ever undertaken at the station, reflecting the typical approach for a plant at this stage of its life. – SAnews.gov.za
