Load shedding suspended early

 ·2 Feb 2025

Power utility Eskom has announced that load shedding was suspended early, as sufficient supply has been restored to its reserves.

Load shedding was implemented at stage 3 on Friday (31 January), but was suspended at 06h00 on Sunday, 2 February.

“Due to the sufficient replenishment of emergency reserves, load shedding was suspended in the morning. Eskom will provide updates if any significant changes occur.”

Eskom said that the return of load shedding at short notice this week was due to it being hit by a ‘perfect storm’ of events.

The group suffered the breakdown of six units at key power stations early in the week; there were delays in returning downed units to service; and its maintenance programme continued unabated.

This led to the group depending on its open-cycle gas turbines to cover the energy shortfall, using up its reserves.

One the reserves were depleted, it needed time to restock for the coming week ahead.

Load shedding hit after 10 months of no nationwide scheduled outages.

Eskom said that the return would be temporary and stressed that performances in Eskom’s operations and at its plants means that the country won’t be returning to the levels of load shedding seen in 2023.

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Friday that Eskom and the government at large had always made it clear that load shedding was not over, and the current risks underlined this.

While the country has seen a long period of no load shedding, setbacks were bound to happen, the minister said.

This was one of those setbacks, he said.

“We were under the impression that load shedding was behind us, but we have to protect the integrity of the system,” Ramokgopa said. “It’s disappointing to all of us…but the trendline is in the right direction.”

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