Eskom makes U-turn, halts Tuesday evening's load-shedding

Eskom has returned four of its generation units to service and, in an about-turn, said on Tuesday afternoon that it had cancelled load-shedding plans for the evening.

“We have cancelled stage 1 for this evening. No load-shedding to be implemented tonight,” Eskom said in tweet. “Having successfully returned four generation units to service ... no load-shedding was implemented as the generation capacity improved. While two more units are expected to return to service [on Wednesday], another two units will be taken offline tonight for urgent maintenance,” said the power utility.

Stage 1 load-shedding is now expected to be implemented from 4pm until 10pm on Wednesday. The country's power system remained “unreliable and vulnerable”.

Unplanned breakdowns amounted to 9,424MW of capacity, adding to the 5,246MW out on planned maintenance.

“Eskom teams are working around the clock to return as many of these generation units to service as possible,” it added.

TimesLIVE