South Africa - No loadshedding is planned this winter, power
utility Eskom has assured,
adding that it intended building on its 21-month- long continuous track record of managing to keep the lights on.
In its winter readiness plan, Eskom said it had already done most of the necessary plant maintenance work ahead of the winter season, “a move that has resulted in a stable power grid with a surplus capacity of about 4000MW”.
However, Eskom group executive for distribution Mongezi Ntsokolo said consumers were still urged not to use electricity unnecessarily.
“During this winter, temperatures will continue to drop and Eskom calls on all customers to continue to use electricity sparingly,” he said.
Ntsokolo said the power utility’s winter plan had already been activated “to test how our networks are able to cope with the extreme weather conditions, increased electricity demand, as well as respond to and restore network faults timeously”.
“Part of the plan is to implement measures that will assist in avoiding possible equipment failures and incidents, the management of the network delivery failures for the national and provincial networks in winter, the implementation of emergency preparedness plans to manage power system interruptions that might materialise and the increased capacity of our customer contact centre,” Ntsokolo said.
He added that customers needed to be aware of the risks of illegal electricity connections, and urged them to report illegal activities, such as cable and electricity theft.
Eskom spokesperson
Khulu Phasiwe said: “The biggest challenge that both Eskom and the municipalities face during winter is the perennial scourge of illegal connections, which causes system overloading.
"Eskom urges communities to report illegal connections or unplanned outages to
08600 37566.