Johannesburg– Eskom says parts of Welkom will continue to endure power outages due to the overloading of electricity on the Soweto-Echo line.
This is despite Eskom announcing that stage 2 load shedding would be suspended from 8pm on Friday night, the leadership of the power utility announced on Friday.
“Eskom is pleased to announce that load shedding will be suspended from 8pm this evening as generation capacity has sufficiently recovered and the demand reduces over the long weekend.
“Over the past 24 hours Eskom teams have returned three generation units to service. This, together with the expected long weekend demand, has sufficiently reduced the constraints on the system, allowing Eskom to suspend load shedding,” said Eskom in a statement.
In Thabong, Welkom, Eskom said the area had intermittent power outages due to cable theft in Masepala, Thelerine and A, B and C hostels.
Eskom said some of the areas were still without power and they should brace for no power until at least Saturday.
“While other parts of Thabong were also affected earlier due to a cable fault that resulted from network overloading, customers in the A, B and C Hostels, Masepala and a portion of Thelerine are still without supply and should prepare themselves to be without electricity until at least tomorrow, 30 October, 2021, when the current transformer feeding these areas has been replaced.
“The Soweto-Echo line is one of the lines where load reduction is being implemented on a regular basis due to consistent network overloading.
“Electricity users are urged to treat all electrical lines, sockets and appliances as live and dangerous,” said Eskom.
The power utility said the power had been restored to some areas from 2pm but warned consumers to use electricity sparingly.
Earlier on Friday, Eskom said it had taken a decision to suspend stage 2 load shedding, after units at the Majuba, Arnot and Tutuka power stations returned to service.
It said the restoration of the units had allowed for the replenishment of emergency generation reserves to acceptable levels.
“Total breakdowns currently amount to 14 618MW while planned maintenance is 4 855MW of capacity.
“Eskom would like to remind customers and the public that load shedding is implemented as a last resort to maintain the stability of the power system.
“We would like again to apologise for the inconvenience caused to the people of South Africa, particularly the education fraternity who is negatively affected by the load shedding while sitting for the matriculation exams.
“Eskom requests the public to continue using electricity sparingly, and will communicate promptly should there be any significant (change),” the power utility said.
IOL