ESKOM: Lights to stay on over the holiday season

The lights will hopefully stay on until January 13 next year.

Eskom announced on Thursday morning that the probability of load shedding remains low until then.

This is as a result of the expected decrease in demand as businesses and industries close down for the festive break, Eskom said in a statement.

However, heavy rains from December to March could impact coal handling and feeding to the boilers with a potential impact on generating power.

“Although we do not anticipate load shedding, we continue to warn consumers that the system remains vulnerable. Any shift could increase the probability of load shedding,” Eskom said.

Eskom continues to implement a short to medium term nine-point recovery programme that will see steady and sustained improvement in plant performance and coal stock levels.

During December, Eskom will intensify its maintenance activities in an effort to improve generation capacity for the return of businesses and industries in the new year. Steady progress has been made with regards to fixing coal stockpiles.

Thirty-five new coal contracts have been concluded between January and December 9 for the supply of 18.6Mt with a total contracted volume of 94Mt. In preparation for continuous rains, three days of compacted stockpiles have been created at power stations.

“While we do not anticipate load shedding over the holiday period, local power outages could occur due to technical faults on the distribution network. If customers experience power outages they are advised to contact their municipalities to allow for early restoration.”