Eskom suspended load-shedding on Friday, saying the demand for electricity had dropped before the weekend.

This comes after the energy supplier had announced two nights of load-shedding on Wednesday and Thursday.  

The utility is asking people to continue using electricity sparingly as the system remains vulnerable and unstable.

“We will use the lower demand opportunity during the weekend to continue replenishing the emergency generation reserves in preparation for the expected higher demand during the coming week,” said Eskom.

Eskom will also continue to pursue reliability maintenance. “This will continue to put pressure on the generation plant going into the week. However, maintenance is necessary to improve the reliability and performance of the power stations.”

The power utility has 6,060MW of capacity on planned maintenance, while another 13,206MW is unavailable due to breakdowns and other load losses.

Eskom said its teams are working hard to return as many of these units to service as soon as possible.

TimesLIVE