Loadshedding to be suspended at midday on Sunday

Eskom have announced that the latest round of rolling loadshedding will come to an end at 12:00 on Sunday 15 March 2020.

This comes after a week where several faults and techincal issues saw the power utility enforce stage four loadshedding.

Power cuts to cease for now

Last weekend Eskom lost seven power generating units across four different power stations and in the week that followed, the Koeberg power plant underwent routine maintenance that caused yet more loss of generating capacity.

With Koeberg having improved and the overall demand for power decreased over the weekend Eskom announced the suspension of loadshedding on Sunday morning.

“Eskom will suspend loadshedding from 12:00, this is due to a much improved generation system performance coupled with low weekend demand,” the power company said in a notice issued at 11:06 on 15 March 2020.

“Unplanned breakdowns were at 9527MW at at 10:42 while planned maintenance was at 6552MW,” Eskom declared in a status update.

When will loadshedding return

This is of course not expected to be the end of our loadshedding woes but comes as a welcome relief in a week filled with bad news.

Government remain under pressure to resolve South Africa’s power crisis with the country subject to loadshedding on and off for 12 years this April.

Five ways you can save power and help avoid loadshedding

To assist in reducing the stage of load shedding, Eskom appeal to customers to use electricity sparingly:

1. Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23C.
2. Switch off your geysers over peak periods.
3. Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time.
4. Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time.
5. At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the switch.