Eskom suspends load-shedding for 7 hours

Eskom will suspend load-shedding for an additional seven hours on Tuesday, 19 September 2023, due to improved generation capacity and reduced breakdowns.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, the utility said that 13,577MW of generation capacity was unavailable due to breakdowns.
Therefore, it would suspend load-shedding from 09:00 until 16:00.
Following this reprieve, it will resume stage 3 load-shedding until 05:00 on Wednesday, 20 September 2023, as previously communicated.
Eskom said it was closely monitoring its system’s performance and would provide a further update in the afternoon.
The 7-hour load-shedding break comes shortly after Eskom also suspended load-shedding in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
The utility stopped implementing the rotational power cuts between midnight and 05:00 after reporting breakdowns at 12,582MW of generation capacity,
The breakdowns have increased by nearly 1,000MW since that time.
Eskom’s latest peak demand statistics showed that it had more capacity available than electricity demand during the period of highest demand on Monday night.
Whereas Eskom had 31,495MW of generation capacity available at 18:41, total demand was estimated at 30,893MW.
The utility shed 3,309MW of capacity through load-shedding, so the peak electricity sent out only reached 27,298MW.
As a result of the generation improvements, Eskom did not have to make use of its diesel-powered open-cycle gas turbines.