Eskom mulls over outages

SOUTH Africa is likely in for a weekend of load shedding as Eskom continues to battle a high number of unplanned breakdowns.

The final decision on whether there would be more load shedding was due to be made last night.

Yesterday morning the number of unplanned breakdowns stood at 11 695MW, just under a third of the power utility’s full output.

For many South Africans it has been a week of frustration.

However, Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said there shouldn’t be any unscheduled load shedding in the future, and users should check Eskom’s schedule charts for updates.

“What happened last week was that Eskom had this programme where non-paying residents in areas where there are low levels of payments had their power cut when we needed to extra load outside of schedules,” said Mantshantsha.

“But then when we implemented national load shedding we suspended this programme. And that is why some people got shed a lot more than others.

“In other areas people complained that they were getting just a few hours of power during the day.”

Eskom reiterated that South Africans were likely to be in for 18 months of load shedding as they conducted critical maintenance.

“Eighty percent of Eskom’s infrastructure is over 50 years old and maintenance at some stations has not been what it should have been.

“We admit that today we are faced with a backlog where a lot of critical maintenance needs to be done,” he said. | Shaun Smillie