The power utility says it will keep the lights on and – by extension – keep the Grinch away from Christmas. It says generation capacity has gone up.
“Our projections are that there will be no load-shedding, not just during the festive season, but beyond,” Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said yesterday. He said that this was mainly because Eskom had successfully embarked on an infrastructure maintenance programme.
“Our focused maintenance programme has drastically improved our operational performance.
“In addition, significant progress in our new build projects coming online has contributed to the better outlook,” he said.
Phasiwe said that a total of 1793MW of new capacity was brought into commercial operation from the Ingula units between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, and Medupi’s unit 5.
“In terms of transmission, 53km of lines have been installed and 1050MVA transformers commissioned. All these factors have enabled the organisation to avoid load-shedding for the past 15 months,” Phasiwe said.
Energy Intensive User Group adviser Shaun Nel said it was expected that there would not be load-shedding in this month because of low demand.
