De Ruyter says that the return of several generating units to the grid, with Unit 3 at Majuba Power Station returning earlier than expected, has decreased the gap between electricity demand and available capacity.

He says the demand forecast for tonight is just over 30 000MW while there is 28 022MW in available capacity.

The power utility plans to move load-shedding from Stage 3 to Stage 2 after the evening peak tonight, depending on how the system performs.

De Ruyter further said that power reserves are stable and if all goes as planned, they hope to suspend load-shedding by die weekend.

Load-shedding was implemented over the Easter weekend on Sunday and was moved to Stage 4 on Tuesday before being reduced to Stage 3 yesterday.