Eskom’s maintenance programme — which failed spectacularly and led to mass load-shedding last year — is back on track.

That was the word from the power utility’s spokesman Khulu Phasiwe at the official opening of Unit 4 at the Ingula Pump Storage power station in Ladysmith‚ KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday.

Phasiwe said that not only was Eskom generating enough power to exceed demand‚ it had also ensured better and more regular maintenance of power stations.

“It’s like a car‚ that you do maintenance on every 15 000km or whatever. We are just doing normal maintenance now‚” he said.

This maintenance has meant no load-shedding this winter‚ a far cry from a year ago when rolling blackouts were commonplace. He said that on Tuesday‚ when the country was gripped by icy weather‚ Eskom had generated about 6000MW more than the demand of about 32000MW.

Ingula’s Unit 4‚ which was set to officially go online on Wednesday after being opened by President Jacob Zuma‚ will generate 333MW to the national power grid. By the time all four units are online‚ Ingula will generate 1332MW.

Phasiwe said that this — along with power to be generated from Medupi and Khusile stations‚ both of which will be completed in the next five years — would ensure South Africa had enough electricity.

“We are saying that if people want to build or develop something‚ they must do it. They can’t say that we don’t have enough electricity‚” he said. — TMG Digital/The Times