During winter, Eskom does not expect it will implement load-shedding despite an increase in demand as lockdown measures are based, This is according to company spokesperson Sikinathi Mantshansha.
The tweet stated that “Please switch off any unnecessary lights, geyser, pool pump, and non-essential appliances such as dishwashers” this is very crucial to beat load-shedding during winter.
Andre de Ruyter told the Parliament that the risk of load-shedding in the next quarter had reduced substantially compared with their previous predictions.
“After lockdown, we will see the initial 31 days of the stage 1 load-shedding that we had anticipated for the next quarter being reduced to only three days,” said De Ruyter.
He continues by saying this was based on a load reduction of 2,000MW due to the impact of the corona virus pandemic on electricity usage.
Mantshansha said despite demand picking up since alert 4 of the lockdown was implemented, Eskom does not expect load-shedding to be required any time soon. he also stated that “Eskom is comfortable it has the capacity to supply electricity without the need to implement load-shedding” but he also encourages consumers to better manage demand and use electricity sparingly and to smooth out the winter demand profile.
While the risk of the load-shedding is always there, Eskom expects to go through the winter without having to implement load-shedding. At most, our plan makes provision for three days of load-shedding.