Eskom stops rolling blackouts

10 January 2015 - 11:25 By Sapa
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Eskom has stopped implementing stage one rolling blackouts, it said ahead of the start of the weekend.

"We stopped load shedding shortly after five o'clock, at 5.05pm," spokesman Andrew Etzinger said.

"We have seen an improvement in our generator capacity situation."

He said an additional reason was that electricity demand on Friday evenings was lower than during the other days of the week.

Earlier the power utility took to social media to announce it had implemented the rolling blackouts.

It said the demand for electricity had exceeded the supply, and that rolling blackouts would be from 11am until 10pm.

The system remained vulnerable, meaning that any extra load or faults might necessitate blackouts, Eskom said.

At the time, spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said the energy grid was severely constrained because Eskom did not have new generating capacity.

Generators were breaking down because maintenance had been deferred, and there were unplanned power outages.

Phasiwe said Eskom's financial issues were partly responsible for the country's rolling blackouts.

"We need money to buy parts for the maintenance, but that is not the only reason. Maintenance in the previous years, from about 2010, has been deferred."

On Wednesday, the risk of power cuts was high after, among other things, two generators failed.

One of the generators had been repaired by Wednesday afternoon.

On Friday, Phasiwe said the other was still offline and engineers were working on repairing it.

On December 8, Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona said the country did not have a power supply crisis.

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