Eskom has warned that load-shedding may be implemented at short notice should any further breakdowns occur, or should some of the generating units not return to service as expected.
It asked that South Africans reduce their power use, as the electricity system was ‘severely constrained’. This at a time when voting is over but counting the ballots will take a couple of days.
Over the past 24 hours, Eskom returned a generation unit each at Camden, Kendal and Medupi power stations. At the same time, however, two generation units – one each at the Arnot and Hendrina power stations respectively – tripped.
In addition, another unit at Arnot and a unit at Lethabo power stations were forced to shut down.
Total breakdowns currently amount to 15 852MW, while planned maintenance has removed 4 036MW of capacity.
Following rolling blackouts over several days last week, load-shedding was suspended on Friday evening.
At the time, Eskom chief operating officer Jan Oberholzer expressed confidence that the vote-counting process following the elections would not be affected by load-shedding. However, he warned that the power system was still constrained, and some units were ‘extremely unpredictable and unreliable’.