Load shedding was stopped temporarily on Wednesday afternoon but was likely to restart towards evening, said Eskom.
Eskom spokesperson Tony Stott said the company had stopped load shedding at about 2pm on Wednesday when demand for electricity decreased during the afternoon. However, ”as we move into peak hours, we will go into load shedding again … probably at around 5pm or 6pm.”
A number of Eskom’s power station units were still on unplanned outages and were having equipment repaired, said Stott. ”It takes usually half a day to three days to do repairs.”
He said the repairs were a result of ”normal wear and tear” at mechanical power stations. ”We have been running them very hard for the last few days to meet demand for electricity because there is not enough spare capacity.”
On Wednesday morning about 10% of plants were on planned maintenance and 6% to 7% on unplanned maintenance. This was an improvement on the approximately 11% of units on unplanned maintenance on Tuesday night, said Stott. ”We were able to bring back some units last night.”
Load shedding could be expected on Thursday but may be prevented towards the weekend as demand for electricity decreased. ”Unless other things go wrong, hopefully on Friday we can avoid load shedding.”
Stott said South Africans need to be aware that load shedding is a reality to deal with for the next few years. ”[Load shedding] is not short-term until we construct large power stations.” said Stott. ”Demand and supply are very tight.”
Load shedding could continue for the next five to seven years. During this time, Eskom is looking at various sources of energy. New gas turbines are to be built and a coal power plant is to be completed in 2012, he said.
Renewable energy sources, including a 100-megawatt wind facility in Vredendal and a solar thermal plant in Upington, are also being considered.
Eskom is trying to get approval for nuclear energy plans scheduled for construction in 2010.
The possibility of importing electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo is also under consideration, said Stott. — Sapa