Cape Town – Eskom has confirmed that there is a "slim chance" of load shedding on Monday night.
There was a concern after stage 1 power cuts were implemented on Sunday. But Eskom spokesperson Dikatso Mothae said the system was much improved and there was no immediate risk of load shedding.
"We will keep our consumers up to date if there are any changes in the system," the power utility said.
A number of Eskom's aging coal-fired power stations were “not operating optimally” and parts of the country were hit by power cuts from 12.15pm to 10pm, Netwerk24 reported, as the cash-strapped power utility’s generators battled with capacity constraints.
Cape Town was lucky to escape any load shedding due to there being an over-supply.
Last week, Eskom chief executive Phakamani Hadebe said 10 stations had less than 20 coal stock days.
Coal supply problems at Eskom power plants have been blamed on Tegeta’s operational failures, which have put pressure on stockpiles. The Gupta-linked company is currently undergoing business rescue.
Eskom has published stage 5 to 8 load shedding schedules. At stage 8 consumers can expect to be without power for up to 17 hours a day and up to six-and-a-half hours consecutively.
Hadebe said generation availability had “deteriorated to below what we aspired to achieve”. He said load shedding could not be ruled out for the remainder of 2018.