Load shedding to be suspended on Saturday

Eskom says load shedding will be suspended at 05:00 on Saturday morning as it anticipates lower demand during the weekend, but cautions that its generation capacity remains constrained.

“While the generation capacity constraints persist, the suspension of load shedding is possible due to the anticipated lower weekend demand, as well as adequate levels of emergency generation reserves,” Eskom said in a power alert.

The power utility says it will provide a further update on the state of its systems on Sunday afternoon should there be significant changes to generation capacity.

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“Since yesterday (Thursday) afternoon a generation unit each at Camden, Grootvlei, Hendrina, Kendal, Kriel, Majuba and Tutuka power stations have returned to service,” Eskom explained.

Currently, Eskom says it has 5 512 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity out on planned maintenance, while a further 13 484MW is offline due to unplanned breakdowns.

The suspension of load shedding comes after the country was forced to soldier through the worst bout of load shedding ever, with households and business losing between four to eight hours of power a day for almost a full month.

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