As the colder months approach, the lights might just stay on for longer throughout winter and Capetonians can look forward to keeping warm.
Thanks to Eskom’s “successful short-term maintenance programme during the lockdown period,” the risk of having to instate loadshedding in the coming months has been reduced significantly.
Eskom chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer said the impact of the lockdown resulted in a reduction in demand by an average of 6 000 megawatts (MW) up to a maximum of 11 000MW, according to IOL.
“Before we had the lockdown, we forecasted 31 days of Stage 1 loadshedding. We are now forecasting 3 days of Stage 1 loadshedding over the winter period that is coming. However, I need to say that is based on an 80 percent probability,” Oberholzer said.
“We don’t see any stage 2 or 3 during winter,” Eskom’s Generation Group Executive, Bheki Nxumalo, said according to SANews.
It looks like even though we might experience a few days of power outages, one good outcome of the lockdown and the ceasing of large business operations is that it has made it possible to save an exceptional amount of electricity. Let’s continue to use electricity sparingly and wisely.
