Given that Eskom didn’t host a media briefing on Friday morning we were almost expecting a surprise change of plans from advice shared on Thursday.
The good news is that Eskom has announced that loadshedding will be suspended on Friday evening at 22:00.
There is currently 14 912MW of capacity unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns and 5 353MW unavailable due to planned maintenance which looks grim on the surface. However, Eskom reports that it expects as many as nine generation units to return to service over the course of the weekend.
“These are a unit at Hendrina and two generation units each at Arnot, Duvha, Majuba and Tutuka power stations. The low weekend demand will assist in replenishing emergency reserves,” Eskom said.
Now for the bad news, Eskom says the system remains severely constrained and volatile. Over the course of the coming week it expects to continue relying on its use of emergency reserves to meet demand.
To that end, we are working on the assumption that loadshedding could return with a vengeance next week although hopefully the public holiday helps address the load.
Be sure to check your schedules using EskomSePush and prepare for the week ahead, just in case Eskom loses more capacity than it returns to service over the weekend.
Loadshedding will be suspended at 22:00 tonight. Eskom cautions that supply will remain severely constrained pic.twitter.com/VCguy3fXga
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) April 22, 2022
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
