Eskom is hoping no load-shedding will be needed over the weekend as power consumption decreases with factories off-line.
Spokesperson Carin de Villiers said on Friday that power consumption had broken records twice in the past week.
The latest record was Thursday’s peak of 34 361MW — 523MW higher than the previous record.
”This was very early in the year,” she said.
”Usually the cold weather hits different parts of the country at different times. This time it hit everybody at the same time.”
She said that while no load-shedding was scheduled, surprise emergencies could not be ruled out.
Earlier this week, Eskom said in a statement that electricity demand had to be reduced.
”We have only so much generating capacity; therefore the only solution is to reduce the demand.”.
The national electricity provider said system demand, growing daily because of the cold weather, put ”tremendous” pressure on the already tight electricity supply.
”One of the main contributions to keeping the national electricity system stable consists of the whole nation collectively using electricity much more sparingly, specifically during peak periods,” said Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga.
Eskom said it had implemented a programme of advising electricity consumers how to use electricity efficiently.
”Unfortunately, should the high consumption of electricity — particularly during the peak periods — continue to increase, the possibility of load-shedding will inevitably also increase,” it said. — Sapa