With winter fast approaching, Eskom is warning people across South Africa that there is a high risk of load-shedding due to breakdowns at several power stations and constant power trips at Medupi and Tutuka.
South Africa’s power system has improved and as a result rolling power cuts will not take place this weekend and next week, Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter said on Friday.
In the latest daily update Eskom’s chief executive, Andre de Ruyter, said a number of units were returning to service.
“At this point the prognosis is good. We have a number of units that are coming back as planned,” he said, adding that he had attended a systems meeting on Friday morning and could give an assurance that the team was working hard to increase the energy capacity.
“The outlook for next week, at this point in time, is quite positive,” De Ruyter said.
Eskom has intensified its rotational power cuts in recent weeks, at times ramping them up to stage 4, which effectively entails throttling 4 000 megawatts of demand at a time to avoid tripping the national grid. This has led to calls for De Ruyter to step down.
Earlier this week, the Eskom boss said he and his fellow executives were appointed by the board and served at its discretion, adding that it had not so far had conversations about dismissing anyone.
De Ruyter added: “I do not intend to resign of my own accord”.