Eskom will continue with loadshedding tomorrow

HIGHVELD –  Eskom announced that it will continue with Stage 2 rotational loadshedding tomorrow, Thursday, 17 October.

The energy supplier advised South Africans earlier today (16 October)that the electricity system had become so severely constrained that Eskom has to implement stage 2 rotational loadshedding.

“We are still experiencing severe generation capacity challenges and as a result will continue loadshedding until 11pm today.”

Eskom Acting Group Chief Executive, Mr Jabu Mabuza said: “We understand the inconvenience that comes with loadshedding and want to assure our customers and South Africans that our objective is not to implement loadshedding; if necessary, to do so at minimal levels and with as much predictability as possible.”
As indicated in an earlier statement, loadshedding is being implemented as a measure of last resort, as unplanned breakdowns are currently above 10 500 MW, impacting our ability to meet the current demand. We wish to assure South Africans that we continue to double our efforts in order to restore secure energy supply.”

Mr Mabuza said the Eskom Emergency Command Centre has been activated and the recovery is now in progress.

“Some generating units have already returned to service and we are expecting more units to return to service over the next few days. Contingency measures have been put in place to manually feed coal to Medupi whilst we look into a permanent solution to the coal conveyor belt failure at the station. We have begun receiving additional diesel supplies from the major oil service providers and as such we are comfortable that we can build the necessary diesel and water reserves to acceptable levels over the weekend.
“In order to protect the power system from a total collapse or blackout and having taken
into account all the recovery efforts currently being implemented, our prognosis for tomorrow (Thursday) is that stage 2 rotational loadshedding will be implemented from 09:00 to 23:00. This requires that a total of 2000 MW be loadshed throughout the country.

We are hopeful that the early warning will assist businesses, including the Department of
Education to plan accordingly and to minimize individual risk,” said Mr Mabuza.

“Eskom regrets and sincerely apologises to our customers and South Africans, particularly to our matriculants, for the inconvenience. We will keep South Africans informed about the status and our recovery efforts throughout this period.”

The energy giant appealed to residents and businesses to use electricity sparingly throughout
the day:

• Set air-conditioners’ average temperature at 23ºC
• Switch off your geysers over peak periods
• Use the cold water tap rather than using the geyser every time
• Set your swimming pool pump cycle to run twice a day, three hours at a time for optimal energy use
• At the end of the day, turn off computers, copiers, printers and fax machines at the switch. Avoid stand-by or sleep mode.

Customers are advised to check their loadshedding schedules on the Eskom or municipal website.

Eskom customers can check their loadshedding schedules on the Eskom website (loadshedding.eskom.co.za) or through the customer contact centre on 0860037566.

Tonight’s loadshedding for Govan Mbeki Municipality is sheduled to begin at 9pm until 11.30pm.

The electricity will be off from 7pm to 9.30pm tomorrow.