By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Power utility Eskom said on Sunday load shedding has been suspended until further notice due to a sustained improved generating capacity and sufficient emergency reserves.
Earlier on Sunday, the utility had also cited lower-than-expected demand for its decision to extend the suspension of load shedding until Monday morning.
The reduction in load shedding comes after its surprise return on New Year’s Day, which the National Rationalised Specifications Association of South Africa’s (NRS’s) Vally Padayachee said was due to increased planned maintenance and more generating capacity out for planned maintenance.
Eskom often takes extra units out during the festive period due to the drop in demand in electricity, (hence, the two-week suspension of load shedding at the end of 2023), but Eskom’s generating fleet is now often on the brink.
Padayachee said this ended up not being the case as Eskom had taken more generation capacity out for planned maintenance than needed.
On 1 January, Eskom’s total generation capacity out for planned maintenance was 8,451MW, which rose to 9,074MW on Wednesday.
Although Eskom takes extra units out during the festive period due to the drop in demand for electricity (hence, the two-week suspension of load shedding at the end of 2023), Eskom’s generating fleet is now often on the brink, impacting consumers.
On 1 January 2024, Eskom said that its unplanned outages stood at over 16,200 MW – roughly a third of Eskom’s entire generation fleet.
In addition, Eskom has raised concerns over units breaking down soon after repairs are done, with the system operator questioning the efficiency of the work.
Padayachee said that Eskom should follow the example of the aviation industry and use a team of independent experts to guarantee that the repairs are done correctly.
For access to other load shedding schedules, Eskom has made them available on loadshedding.eskom.co.za.
Smartphone users can also download the app EskomSePush to receive push notifications when load shedding is implemented, as well as the times the area you are in will be off.