Following over two months of no load shedding, Eskom consumers were this morning warned that things could change due to power capacity concerns and the strain caused by the current heatwave.
Starting from 6am, the risk of load shedding was so high that power could go off any time till 10pm due to a shortage of generation capacity.
“Some of our generating units tripped last night and this morning.
“The fault is on our side and has nothing to do with our consumers,” Eskom said, adding that four of its big units were offline because of technical faults.
“Load shedding is implemented as a necessary measure to protect the power system. We do this to ensure that maintenance is carried out properly in order to guarantee that our supply of electricity can be maintained in the long term,” it said.
Electricity users were urged to “consider energy-efficient ways of keeping cool as we are currently experiencing hot weather conditions across the country”.
Eskom also assured customers it would continue to provide regular updates on the state of the power system. Spokesman Khulu Phasiwe told The Star this morning the possibility of load shedding had nothing to do with the coal strike.
“This is merely a technical fault,” he said.
Earlier this week, 30 000 Eskom workers went on strike demanding a R1 000 increase in their salaries