Eskom said the return to service of many of the units that had suffered breakdowns over the past two weeks had enabled it to suspend load-shedding from Friday.
Amid an avalanche of criticism and calls for resignations of bosses en masse, Eskom said it “was pleased” it had suspended load-shedding at 05:00.
“The improved demand response for different stages of load-shedding has also enabled a faster than anticipated recovery,” the power utility said on Thursday.
Total breakdowns have reduced to 11 224MW while planned maintenance is 7 030MW of capacity as we continue with the reliability maintenance.
Eskom said it “thanks all our customers for their patience and assistance during this period of load-shedding. We appeal to all South Africans to continue using electricity sparingly and to switch off non-essential items”.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said if all 14 million households in South Africa all switched off one unnecessary light bulb, the country would have an extra 835MW.
“Taken together, these small cumulative savings result in large savings in electricity capacity and reduce the probability of load-shedding,” said Eskom.
