Lockdown helps Eskom cut expected winter load-shedding to three days

Eskom says there is a reduced risk of load-shedding during winter, partly because the lockdown has allowed for critical maintenance to be done.

This forecast emerged during a “state of the system address” by Eskom on Thursday.

“Before we had lockdown, we forecast 31 days of stage 1 load-shedding. We are now forecasting three days of stage 1 load-shedding over winter,” said COO Jan Oberholzer.

However, he said it was important to stress that the forecast was not 100% accurate because the system remained unstable and unreliable because of a decade of neglect in maintenance.

Oberholzer said the lockdown had reduced demand by between 6,000MW and 11,000MW.

This created an opportunity for Eskom to execute additional short-term opportunistic maintenance to address some urgent matters in the system.