Eskom was able to avoid national rolling blackouts on Thursday evening, but only because there was a reduction in demand and because it made extensive use of emergency generation resources.
The state-owned utility said on Friday that South Africans reduced their electricity usage on Thursday evening after it warned that load shedding was a real possibility. This was after several of its coal-fired generation units tripped.
Overnight, the company returned a single generating unit — at the Majuba power station — to service.
“While the probability of load shedding has been significantly reduced at this point as Eskom returns generating units to service from breakdown, we urge the public to continue using electricity sparingly,” it said.
On Wednesday, Eskom said a unit each at the Tutuka, Medupi and Majuba power stations had tripped, while a unit at Lethabo had been taken offline to repair a boiler tube leak.