Risk of load shedding low, but could increase by Tuesday evening - Eskom

The risk of load shedding remains low for Tuesday morning, Eskom said in a statement issued on Monday evening.

It cautioned, however, that the risk increases for the evening peak period from 17:00 to 21:00 on Tuesday evening.

Eskom did not have to implemented rotational load shedding on Monday.

Customers are advised to keep checking their load shedding schedules on the Eskom and their municipal website and to plan on the assumption that load shedding will take place.

On Friday Eskom said there will be a high risk of load shedding for the next 30 days as recovery teams start to get to work fixing damage the power utility says was caused by strikes. 

This means that South Africans will have to plan for load shedding until Sunday 2 September, and Eskom has asked businesses and the public to use power sparingly during this period. 

Last Tuesday the power utility instituted three hours of load shedding for the first time in a month, saying power generation capacity shortfalls had been caused by the intimidation of workers and acts of sabotage.

It said work the recovery teams would be involved in would include coal and diesel management, the maintenance and restarting of power plants, and environmental compliance, including ash management. It added that an improvement in generation could "only increase and be achieved with the return of employees".

Trade union Solidarity said last Thursday that it had accepted a wage offer from Eskom. 

Solidarity was one of three unions locked in long-running wage negotiations with Eskom.

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