/ 3 March 2008

Eskom: No power cuts expected this week

No power cuts are foreseen for the rest of this week, Eskom said on Monday.

”The situation is tight at the moment, but we don’t anticipate load shedding to occur for the rest of this week,” said spokesperson Tony Stott.

Last week Eskom and City Power-Johannesburg launched a timetable of power cuts to help industry and residents plan ahead.

The timetable, effective from March 1, divided the city into eight geographic blocks, and sets out the times when planned power cuts could occur.

In terms of the new approach, planned cuts would only happen twice a week, lasting up to four hours at a time.

”Load shedding would occur if one of the power stations lowers supply quite rapidly … we still ask the public to use electricity wisely in order to reduce the risk of load shedding.”

Stott said the public would be warned in advance of deliberate cuts because of supply shortages.

Power cut plans can be viewed at www.eskom.co.za — Sapa