By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Power utility Eskom said on Wednesday load shedding has been suspended from 11:00 until 16:00 due to improved generation capacity.
Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Thursday, followed by Stage 1 until 16:00.
Eskom said that an update will be provided on Thursday afternoon.
Minister in the Presidency for Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom’s performance and the health of electricity system continue to show improvement despite the continued implementation of load shedding.
Ramokgopa was briefing the media on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan on Tuesday (23 January).
“We have really turned the corner, and I’m not suggesting that we have ended load shedding.
“I’m simply saying that we can see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and this is not an oncoming train, but it’s a system whose health continues to improve at levels that even exceed our projections and expectations,”he said.
“With the average unplanned capacity loss factor [generating unit breakdowns], we were sitting at about 14,100MW, and then it went to 13,000MW in the past week, but what is important is that it’s only on the 16th of January where we’re above 15,000MW…now we are at 12,700MW.
“That shows an area… that the team has invested in, and we are beginning to see those returns,” he added.
The Minister also revealed that over the past two weeks, available capacity has “consistently” exceeded peak demand.
However, there are reasons that load shedding continues to be implemented.
The first of those is that at least 3,000MW of available capacity is drawn from open-cycle gas turbines (OCGT), which are burning on diesel.
“…We have [now]reduced our consumption of diesel… so essentially, it’s the true health of the system.
“The second reason is that…planned maintenance still is significantly high. We are hitting about 8,000 to 9,000MW of planned maintenance.”
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.