/ 11 October 2007

Eskom: No load shedding (so far) on Thursday

Positive public response to conserving electricity resulted in no load shedding by Eskom since early on Thursday morning.

Eskom officials said if the public continued to intensify their efforts in saving electricity, there may be no load shedding throughout the day.

”This morning, we have not done any load shedding countrywide,” Eskom’s national spokesperson Fani Zulu said.

He said the improvement was due to two factors.

”There has been an improvement in the performance of our generation plant and South Africans have responded positively to our call to conserve electricity,” he said.

”If we intensify our methods in saving electricity, we will most likely go through the day without any load shedding.”

Earlier this week, Eskom increased its load shedding on a rotational basis.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Wednesday that Eskom had been caught napping again and had caused massive disruption to the public and the economy.

”Eskom has informed the public too late about load shedding and has caused massive disruptions,” said DA spokesperson on Minerals and Energy Affairs, Hendrik Schmidt.

”I will be submitting a number of questions to the Minister of Minerals and Energy [Affairs], Buyelwa Sonjica, about the regulations and policies of her department and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, in this regard,” Schmidt said.

He said power failures were costing the economy up to R8-billion a year. – Sapa