Eskom has asked South Africans to cut back on their use of electricity as the South African Weather Service forecasts of the arrival of a powerful winter weather system this week.
Temperatures are expected to plummet across South Africa as a strong cold front makes landfall from the west and brings bitterly cold weather to most of the country. Temperatures in Gauteng and much of the interior are not expected to reach double digits on Thursday as the system moves through the area.
“Eskom would like to appeal to the public to reduce the usage of electricity as the cold conditions will put severe pressure on the power system,” the state-owned utility said in a statement.
“The system is currently performing relatively well, and Eskom is not expecting to implement load shedding at this point,” it said.
Eskom has not implemented rolling power cuts since 13 June “due to some improvement in the performance of the generation fleet”.
“However, the cold front will increase the demand for electricity, thereby putting pressure on the power system. Therefore, Eskom urges the people of South Africa to help reduce electricity usage in order to ease the pressure on the system.” — © 2021 NewsCentral Media
