After days of rolling blackouts, Eskom said on Thursday afternoon there was enough generation capacity to keep the lights on for the remainder of the week.

The power utility has returned four generation units to service, bringing online an additional 1,500MW of capacity to ease pressure on the strained system.

Stage 2 load-shedding was scheduled to end at 10pm on Thursday.

“Available capacity has risen to more than 34,000MW — the highest so far this year. We have also been able to replenish our emergency reserves, which are crucial to protect the national grid from the possibility of multiple generation unit trips,” said the power utility.

“This is sufficient to enable Eskom to suspend the period of load-shedding from 10pm, with no load-shedding expected for the rest of the week.” 

Consumers were urged to keep using electricity sparingly.