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Since the past weekend, plant performance has deteriorated with unplanned breakdowns reaching a high of 12 500 MW before reducing to approximately 11 500 MW as at 10:00 this morning. Eskom is currently using emergency resources, being diesel and pumped water storage to keep the lights on.

With the expected return to service of several units today and tomorrow, and with current diesel reserves, the probability of loadshedding remains low for the week, but the system remains constrained until at least Thursday. We remind customers that any unexpected shift, such as additional unplanned breakdowns or the unavailability of diesel or pumped water storage reserves, could result in loadshedding at short notice.

As communicated in the Summer Plan on 4th of September 2019, unplanned breakdowns above 9 500 MW require the use of emergency resources at a high rate (diesel and pumped water storage generators) and they increase the probability of loadshedding if the supply constraints are sustained for a long duration.

Our summer maintenance programme is underway, and technical teams are working tirelessly to keep to schedule and bring back generating units from planned and unplanned maintenance.

We continue to appeal to residents and businesses to use electricity sparingly. Please switch off geysers as well as all non-essential lighting and electricity appliances to assist in reducing demand. 

We will continue to keep South Africans informed about the status of the electricity system and our recovery efforts.     

Issued by Eskom