After delivering the break news on Sunday 17 January that load shedding would continue somewhat indefinitely throughout the weak, Eskom turned around and declared that the energy maintenance measures have progressed.
In a statement released, Eskom said that their teams have been making headway in returning multiple units to serve over the past 24hours. Eskom teams have successfully returned two generation units each at Kursile, Kriel and one at Tutuka power stations to service.
An additional two generation units are scheduled to return to service while reserves for emergency generation have also recovered adequately. However, they cautioned that with their energy use, the public should stay frugal as they remain hamstrung by aging and fragile facilities at many of their power plants.
“While the supply situation has improved at this point, Eskom would like to request the public to continue using electricity sparingly as the system is vulnerable and unpredictable” the said.
“As Eskom has regularly stated, the risk of load shedding remains elevated while we conduct increased reliability maintenance.” they currently have 4920MW put on planned maintenance, while another 13897MW of capacity is unavailable due to unplanned maintenance, breakdown and outage delays.