Eskom suspends load shedding after days of blackouts

Over the weekend, Eskom said that there will be no load shedding this week as the outlook looks favorable, with plants performing better than last week.

Last week, the country was plunged into hours of darkness as Eskom battled to sort out issues with generating units at some stations.

“The improvement in plant performance, together with replenished diesel and water reserves over the last few days, as well as the increase of imports from Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa to 850MW, has positively shifted system performance,” said Eskom in a statement.

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However the power utility highlighted that the risk of load shedding remains as the system continues to be vulnerable.

“Load shedding will only be implemented when absolutely necessary,” it said, while also urging its customers to continue to use electricity sparingly by switching off geysers and non-essential lighting.

In the last few days South Africans have experienced daily load shedding which varied between Stage 4 and Stage 2.

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On Friday, rotational load shedding came down two notches to Stage 2 load shedding.

Stage 1 calls for 1000MW, Stage 2 calls for 2000MW, Stage 3 calls for 3000MW, and Stage 4 calls for 4000MW to be rotationally load shed nationally at a given period.

Meanwhile, SA's prayers may have been answered as BRICS Bank plans to lend R11 billion to Eskom which could alleviate some of the pressure on the country’s electricity grid.

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The New Development Bank (NDB), back by the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is in talks with the government about loans that could assist the country’s electricity grid ailing infrastructure, the lender’s president, K.V. Kamath, said by phone last week.

Earlier this month, South Africa‘s energy regulator, Nersa, granted Eskom average power price increases that were far below what the utility had asked for, saying it aimed to balance the interests of the company and the public.

Eskom was granted a 9.4% tariff hike for this year along with an increase of 8.1% for 2020 followed by 5.2% the following year.