Stage 1 load shedding to be suspended from 11pm, says Eskom

Stage one load shedding will be suspended from 11pm on Saturday night until 7am on Sunday morning, Eskom said. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

Stage one load shedding will be suspended from 11pm on Saturday night until 7am on Sunday morning, Eskom said. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Mar 14, 2020

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Johannesburg - Stage one load shedding will be suspended from 11pm on Saturday night until 7am on Sunday morning, Eskom said.

Eskom would again resume implementing stage one load shedding throughout the day on Sunday. 

The much improved generation system performance, coupled with low weekend demand, had allowed for gradual reduction from stage four load shedding early in the week, the state owned power utility said in a statement on Sunday evening.

Koeberg unit one had been safely synchronised onto the grid, which had helped increase generation capacity and ease the scale of load shedding. The generation unit would ramp up to full capacity over the next few days, in line with good operating procedure. Eskom was making good progress in restoring the emergency reserves to meet demand for the coming week.

"Unplanned breakdowns" or outages were at 11,041 MW as at 4.50pm on Saturday afternoon and planned maintenance outages were at 5547 MW.

"As the ageing fleet is currently constrained, unpredictable and vulnerable, we advise South Africans that the stage of load shedding may change at short notice should there be any unexpected change in the generation system performance," Eskom said.

"It is only through partnership between Eskom and all stakeholders that we may soon emerge from these difficult times. We urge every South African to co-operate in managing electricity consumption with care to help us minimise load shedding. We thank you for your co-operation and understanding so far," the statement said.

African News Agency (ANA), editing by Jacques Keet

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