No blackouts expected for festive season

SOUTH Africans should not expect any electricity blackouts during the festive season, Eskom said yesterday.

The power utility has made an assurance to keeping lights on as holiday makers prepare for vacations and other festive season festivities.

“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 this was because Eskom had embarked on an infrastructure maintenance programme.

“Operational performance improvements are the main contributing factors for the positive outlook. In addition, significant progress in terms of our new build projects coming online has also contributed to the better outlook,” he said.

Phasiwe said that 1 793MW of new capacity was brought into commercial operation from the Ingula units, and Medupi’s unit 5.

“In terms of transmission, 53km of lines have been installed and 1 050MVA transformers commissioned. All these factors have enabled the organisation to avoid load shedding for the past 15 months,” Phasiwe said.

The announcement of a load-shedding free festive season comes hot on the heels of a report compiled by Statistics South Africa, which revealed a positive outlook for the country’s power supply.

StatsSA has released figures showing that electricity production increased by 2.0% year-onyear in October this year.

The report further reveals that electricity distribution or consumption decreased by 0.5% year-onyear in October this year.