Eskom has been able to undertake more winter maintenance than planned, due to lower-than-expected outages and soft demand, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has said.
“It’s an important point – in the midst of winter, we are able to ramp up planned maintenance,” he told a media briefing on Sunday morning.
On Friday, Eskom was able to take 4 300MW offline for maintenance, compared to 2 800MW at the start of the week.
Ramokgopa said that this winter season demand had reached a high of 31 000MW, lower than a peak of 34 000MW forecast by the utility.
Unplanned breakdowns, meanwhile, fell to below 14 000MW on Friday, down from 16 400MW at the start of the week.
Eskom’s available capacity hovered at around 29 000MW.
“Generation is beginning to keep up with demand, that is why you are able to see during significant periods of the day… we are not having load shedding,” he said. – news24.com