Some relief as Eskom announces drop to stage 2 after evening peak

21 April 2022 - 10:55
By TimesLive
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter. File photo.
Image: Business Day/Freddy Mavunda Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter. File photo.

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said on Thursday the plan is to drop load-shedding to stage 2 after the evening peak, with it possibly being lifted for the weekend after the Friday evening peak.

Eskom had to implement stage 4 load-shedding on Tuesday after two units tripped.

Speaking at a briefing updating on the power supply situation, De Ruyter said several units have been returned, but there was still a loss of 270MW due to maintenance on Cahora Bassa.

He said while no outages are expected next week, there is always a risk.

“Prognosis is that we don't anticipate load-shedding for next week, but it is dependent on stability of the system. 

“It depends on how we perform on the weekend, and the rain on the weekend — we may see further impact and it may impact generational capacity.”

He said in the next few months it is expected to have feet on the ground as maintenance teams move into identified power stations.

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