Eskom suspends load shedding, warns ‘system remains vulnerable’

Eskom has announced there will be no load shedding on Thursday, February 11, 2021, as generation capacity has sufficiently improved.

The power utility had implemented Stage 3 load shedding from 13:00 on Wednesday until 06:00 the next morning, citing the loss of generation units.

“Over the past 24 hours, Eskom teams successfully returned our generation units to service, helping ease the capacity constraints sufficiently to enable us to not require load shedding. Another five units are expected to return to service during the next two days,” the power utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said in a statement.

Should we expect further load shedding anytime soon?

Eskom further said that the rolling blackouts it was forced to implement over the past two days, has also enabled the utility to adequately replenish the emergency generation reserves. In light of this, the prospect of load shedding is rather low, but as history has taught us, anything is possible given the unpredictability of the grid.

“Eskom requests the public to continue using electricity sparingly as the system remains vulnerable and unpredictable,” Mantshantsha added.

He said they would let the public know, should there be any significant changes to the power system.

Eskom currently has 4 928MW capacity on planned maintenance, while another 13 217MW has been lost due to breakdowns.

“As previously communicated, Eskom continues to implement reliability maintenance during this period, and as such the system will continue to be constrained, with the risk of loadshedding remaining elevated,” Mantshantsha further said.

Eskom had implemented stage two power cuts on Tuesday night and over the weekend. The utility has been marred by years of gross mismanagement and mounting financial troubles, which some attribute to corruption. The utility’s CEO Andre De Ryter has often said that load shedding will likely continue at least until September 2021, as they conduct a maintenance program which is meant to make the power cuts a thing of the past.