Cape Town: Power utility Eskom is urging the public to reduce its electricity consumption as the power grid is severely strained.
Load shedding has been suspended since 10pm on Friday, April 22.
“While no load shedding is currently being implemented, Eskom requests the public to reduce the consumption of electricity as any further losses of generation capacity would force the implementation of load shedding at very short notice,” it said.
The power utility said it suffered multiple loss of generators at the weekend as well as delays in returning some of its generation units to service.
That has led to a constrained power system on Monday afternoon.
“Eskom is working on returning a generation unit each at Matimba, Duvha and Arnot power stations to service before the evening peak.
“Today (Monday) a generation unit each at Arnot, Kendal, Matla and Tutuka power stations have been returned to service.
“However, we will still be heavily reliant on emergency reserves to meet demand tonight,” Eskom said.
It said its emergency reserves are healthy to assist in reducing the supply deficit.
The power utility has 4 533MW on planned maintenance while another 13 601MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns.
“Eskom would again like to remind the public that load shedding is implemented only as a last resort to protect the national grid.
“We therefore request the public to continue using electricity sparingly to reduce the occurrence of load shedding.
“We will promptly inform the public should there be any significant developments,” it added.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL