Eskom will suspend load shedding at 5am on Thursday, as originally communicated last weekend, but has warned that “significant risks remain” and rolling blackouts could be implemented again “at short notice”.

“We have used the past six days of load shedding to conduct some repairs to generating units and to continue with the maintenance programme. Even though we were able to replenish emergency generation reserves, we have had to continue relying on these to support power system over this period,” the state-owned utility said.

And the rolling blackouts could return at any time.

“While Eskom is currently able to suspend load shedding, there are still significant risks to some generating units, which would force it to implement load shedding at short notice should we lose any further generation capacity,” it said.

In addition to the Eskom planned maintenance programme, Hydro Cahora Bassa started its planned annual maintenance outage on 9 October, which resulted in a 650MW reduction in available capacity. Cahora Bassa is expected to be at full capacity by Friday morning.

Total breakdowns currently amount to 14.9GW while planned maintenance is 5.3GW of capacity, Eskom said.

“During the night and over the next few days, some generation units will be returning to service, which will further ease the pressure on the system. Returning units are expected at Kriel, Majuba, Hendrina, Lethabo and Tutuka power stations.” — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media