Eskom suspended loadshedding on Thursday morning, following six days of rolling blackouts throughout the country.

The State-owned power utility said it has used the past six days to repair generating units and conduct its maintenance programme.

“While Eskom teams have returned some generation units to service… we have unfortunately suffered further breakdowns during the period. Although we have recovered some emergency generation reserve capacity to support the system, the recovery in generation capacity has not been sufficient to alleviate the system constraints,” the power utility said.

The generation units expected back in service are those at Kriel, Majuba, Hendrina, Lethabo and Tutuka power stations.

Eskom was also able to replenish emergency electricity generation reserves over the past six days but it warned that loadshedding could be back on the cards.

“There are still significant risks to some generating units, which would force Eskom to implement loadshedding at short notice, should we lose any further generation capacity. The teams are doing everything possible to manage the risks,” Eskom said.

Eskom urged the public to use electricity sparingly over this period in order to avoid more loadshedding.

Source: South African Government News Agency

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