“Due to the much colder weather, demand for electricity has significantly increased this afternoon. It is now more than 2,000MW higher than yesterday, and we forecast that evening peak demand will still be much higher,” said the power utility.
“This was already the highest demand so far this year, at more than 33,000MW.
“This, together with generation units that have suffered breakdowns, is putting severe strain on the system. Eskom is working hard to return these generation units to service to help reduce the strain on the system.”
“Eskom teams this afternoon managed to return one generation unit to service at the Tutuka power station. This, however, was countered by a generation unit each at the Medupi and Kusile power stations tripping, contributing to the constrained capacity. This adds to one delayed generation unit at Tutuka and one at Kendal.”