Eskom suspending load-shedding after a month of constant power cuts
Eskom has announced that it will suspend load-shedding at 05:00 on Saturday morning.
“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,” the power utility stated.
“Eskom will publish a further update on Sunday afternoon, or as soon as there are any significant changes.”
Since yesterday afternoon, a generation unit each at Camden, Grootvlei, Hendrina, Kendal, Kriel, Majuba and Tutuka power stations have returned to service.
A generating unit at Duvha Power Station was taken offline for repairs.
“We currently have 5,512MW on planned maintenance, while another 13,484MW of capacity is unavailable due to breakdowns,” Eskom said.
Eskom records longest streak of load-shedding yet
The suspension of load-shedding comes after more than a month of load-shedding, the longest streak yet.
The latest round of power cuts started on 6 September 2022 when Eskom implemented intermittent load-shedding.
On 8 September 2022, it escalated to continuous load-shedding, which peaked at stage 6 for several days from Sunday, 18 September 2022, following a flurry of unit breakdowns.
2022 has been South Africa’s worst year of load-shedding so far.
According to data from popular load-shedding tracking app EskomSePush, South Africa’s state-owned power utility had implemented 2,071 hours of load-shedding year-to-date as of 14:00 on Friday, 7 October 2022.
The hours of load-shedding implemented in 2022 are closing in on double the 1,153 hours recorded last year — Eskom’s previous worst.
Data-focused news publication The Outlier recently published a calendar infographic showing the days on which Eskom implemented load-shedding in 2022.
It has been an entire month since we have had a day without blackouts. Here’s a look back at all the dark days of 2022 so far 🕯️ https://t.co/m3hTx5eJSA pic.twitter.com/9yMIW5jFba
— The Outlier (@outlierafrica) October 6, 2022
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