• Eskom says loadshedding will remain suspended until Wednesday evening.
• Initially Stage 1 was supposed to start again on Tuesday at 16:00.
• Increased generation against lower demand has kept Eskom without the need to impose outages.

Amid a rare bout of increased energy generation from Eskom, loadshedding will continue to be suspended for another day. Last week the power utility told South Africa it would not need to enforce blackouts for the weekend due to expected reduced demand and higher generation output.

Initially loadshedding was slated to return at 16:00 on Tuesday evening, but now Eskom says it will only be implemented on Wednesday.

“Loadsheddinng will remain suspended until 16:00 on Wednesday. The continued suspension of loadshedding for more than four days is due to sufficient emergency generation reserves and the anticipated evening peak demand for today of 27 482MW,” Eskom said in a statement on X.

If no further changes take place, loadshedding Stage 1 will be implemented from 16:00 on Wednesday thereafter there will be no loadshedding from 05:00 to 16:00 the next day. This pattern will then repeat until further notice.

In its latest breakdown of generation and demand, Eskom reported a rare power surplus of 3 600MW. This as the utility generated 29 979MW against demand of 24 397MW. A massive boost to generation was electricity from renewable sources which saw a formidable 3 114MW, which may be among the most the utility has generated from green sources all year.

October has seen significant strides by the utility in the stability of the power grid, and has granted South Africans the longest reprieve from loadshedding all year. This month saw the return of Kusile unit 1 which joined Kusile unit 3 after it was brought online at the end of September.

The Kusile power station is among the largest coal-fired power stations in the world, and a collapse of its flue-gas desulphurisation unit in November last year plunged the country into the energy crisis that made 2023 the year with the most loadshedding ever.

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