Rustenburg - Load shedding will be reduced to stage 1 on Friday evening, power utility, Eskom said.
The power utility said this was due to an improvement in the generation capacity, together with the traditionally reduced weekend demand.
Load shedding was expected to be downgraded to stage 1 from 9pm on Friday until Monday at 5am.
“While there has been an improvement in the generation capacity, and a significant recovery in the emergency generation reserves, caution is still called for as this is not sufficient to suspend load shedding at this point.
“Eskom will continue to evaluate the system and make the necessary adjustments as soon as conditions allow,” the power utility said.
Eskom said a generating unit at the Kusile power station was returned to service on Thursday evening, while a unit at the Hendrina power station was shut down to repair a boiler tube leak.
A unit each at Duvha, Kriel and Hendrina power stations were taken off line for planned maintenance.
“Total breakdowns amount to 13 277MW while planned maintenance is 6 728MW of capacity as we continue with the reliability maintenance.”
Eskom appeals to all South Africans to help limit the impact of load shedding by reducing the usage of electricity and to switch off non-essential items.
On Wednesday, Eskom announced that it would implement stage 2 load shedding from 11am to 5am next week Monday.
This was due to a shortage of generation capacity following breakdowns of two more generating units.
A unit each at Kusile and Kendal power stations tripped while there were delays in returning units at the Kusile, Tutuka, Duvha, Lethabo and Grootvlei stations.
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