SOUTH AFRICA - NO LOADSHEDDING FOR CHRISTMAS EVE BUT SYSTEM CONTINUES TO BE VULENRABLE

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Wednesday that Eskom executives' leave would be cancelled so that the utility can fulfil its promise to reduce the frequency of load shedding.

Eskom said on Tuesday morning that it does not expect any load shedding during the day as demand dropped during festive period.

While some generating units have returned to service, Eskom said it will ''continue to use emergency reserves to supplement capacity if necessary over this period.''

The power utility has warned customers that the system continues to be vulnerable and unpredictable and that "the possibility of load shedding remains."

In its statement Eskom said it has since Sunday not utilised emergency diesel to supplement capacity.

Breakdowns are at 14 860 MW as of 06:30 Tuesday morning, this is still well above the level of 9 500MW the utility is aiming for.

"Our technical teams will continue to work over the holiday period to monitor the situation, carry out planned maintenance and to work at reducing unplanned breakdowns to below 9 500MW to enable us to minimise the possibility of load shedding," it said in a morning update.

''We continue to ask customers to reduce demand as a concerted collective effort can help to avoid or lessen the level of load shedding.''

President Cyril Ramaphosa, addressing the media last week after cutting short an official visit to Egypt, said Eskom management had given him an assurance that the utility "should not be in a position to have any form of load shedding" be
tween December 17 and January 15, 2020.

Ramaphosa added that he had instructed all managers that leave until January is cancelled.

via - FIN24