By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Eskom announced the suspension of load shedding at 5am on Saturday after South Africa experienced its longest stretch of power cuts to date.
The utility attributes the load shedding respite to lower weekend demand and adequate emergency generation reserves.
The country has moved from several stages of load shedding from the second week of September including stage 6 power cuts.
“While the generation capacity constraints persist, the suspension of load-shedding is possible due to the anticipated lower weekend demand, as well as adequate levels of emergency generation reserves,” the power utility stated.
“Eskom will publish a further update on Sunday afternoon, or as soon as there are any significant changes.”
The group said that a generation unit each at Camden, Grootvlei, Hendrina, Kendal, Kriel, Majuba and Tutuka power stations hve returned to service, since Thursday afternoon.
A generating unit at Duvha Power Station was taken offline for repairs.
“We currently have 5,512MW on planned maintenance, while another 13,484MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns,” Eskom said.