Eskom said load shedding was susepended due to improved generation. Photo: iStock
Eskom has continued with the suspension of load shedding on Wednesday due to improved generation, but outages will be back in the evening.
Spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the power cuts were suspended from midnight on Tuesday until 16:00.
“Thereafter, Stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 16:00 until 05:00 on Thursday, followed by Stage1 load shedding from 05:00 until 16:00. Eskom will publish another update should any significant changes occur,” Mokwena said.
Earlier this month, Deputy President Paul Mashatile said he was “confident” that the rolling blackouts will be a thing of the past in 2024.
Mashatile was speaking to the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association on Thursday night.
He said he was very worried about the frequency and intensity of the rolling blackouts.
“I have been very worried about load shedding. We are working closely with the Minister of Electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. We want to put it behind us next year. We are going to push… but not push these power stations to a point of total breakdown.”
ALSO READ: ‘We want to put load shedding behind us in 2024’ − Mashatile
Meanwhile, Ramokgopa reported a slight improvement in the national grid following a week of severe power cuts.
Ramokgopa gave update on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan (EAP) after a week of stage 5 and 6 power cuts.
The electricity minister also confirmed the return of Unit 4 at Kusile power station on Sunday morning that was put on planned maintenance.
Ramokgopa said this resulted in the reduction of the power cuts.
“This milestone means generating capacity will be ramped up by 800MW into the grid, resulting in the reduction of one stage of load shedding.”
Ramokgopa also said the warmer temperatures have made it challenging for some Eskom generating units to operate optimally.
According to Ramokgopa, struggling generating units had resulted in load losses which totalled nearly 6 000 megawatts over the past few days and the Matimba plant generation was affected most.
ALSO READ: Load shedding: Now it’s too hot says Electricity Minister