Christmas lights likely to stay on

15 December 2014 - 02:01 By Penwell Dlamini
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LET'S ALL LIGHTEN UP: Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille starts the Festival of Lights celebrations at the Grand Parade last night
LET'S ALL LIGHTEN UP: Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille starts the Festival of Lights celebrations at the Grand Parade last night
Image: SHELLEY CHRISTIANS

If things stay the way they are Eskom will have enough generating capacity to avoid power cuts for the entire festive season.

This was the assurance given by the utility yesterday.

Eskom acting spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said the national power grid was "relatively stable".

"There is no plan to load-shed this week or during the holiday period. Many of our generating units are operating optimally.

"We have also built up our emergency reserves of water and diesel fuel. As things stand, we are okay," Phasiwe said.

In recent weeks the utility has been battling to keep the lights on since the collapse of a coal silo, and despite diesel shortages and a series of maintenance issues.

Last weekend Eskom resorted to stage three load-shedding.

Stage one allows for up to 1000MW of the national load to be shed, stage two for up to 2000MW, and stage three for up to 4000MW.

Eskom expects the situation to continue to be stable until the second week of January, when most companies reopen.

"If we do not lose any generating units we will not have to resort to load-shedding," Phasiwe said.

Phasiwe said most industries had started closing and demand for power had subsided, giving Eskom some "breathing space" for maintenance work ahead of the return to peak demand in the second week of January.

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