Eskom announces reduced load shedding ahead of Bafana clash

Eskom

Cape Town — Struggling power utility, Eskom, provided some reprieve for South Africans as loadshedding was reduced to stage 1 and stage 2, bringing good news ahead of Bafana’s AFCON semi-final against Nigeria.

While most would have hoped for a complete suspension, the reprieve is welcomed. Eskom announced that the drop in loadshedding stages is down to sufficient emergency reserves after the return to service of two units. They said it will closely monitor the power system and communicate further should it be required, SA Gov News reported.

“Due to sufficient emergency reserves and a slight increase in available generation capacity, resulting from the return to service of two units, load shedding will be reduced to Stage 1 from 10am today until 2pm. Thereafter, Stage 2 load shedding will be implemented from 2pm until further notice,” Eskom said on Wednesday.

According to The Citizen, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa emphasised the need for Eskom to strike a balance between mitigating the severity of the power cuts and adhering to the constraints of the diesel budget.

“If ones asks if you are making the claim that capacity available is greater than peak demand then why are we having load shedding is because 3 000 [megawatts] of capacity available has to be drawn from the open cycle gas turbines [OCGTs] which are burning diesel… so we have reduced our consumption on diesel,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eskom’s new Group Chief Executive, Dan Marokane, will officially report for duty in March. When announcing his appointment in December last year, Eskom said he would join the organisation no later than 31 March 2024.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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